Two Loaves Baked with Leaven

Well, good morning, everyone! Certainly good to be here with all of you today. I want to thank the offeror, Tori Pianus, the special music. Very good, very fitting number for today, right, as we're here on the day of Pentecost. I just want to say how nice it is to have all the congregations in this area meeting together. It's been good to meet so many of you already. We look forward to meeting the rest of you today. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about myself at all this morning, but I just want to let you know we've one of the very good opportunities that we've found in doing the role that we're doing now is to be able to go around and meet brethren like you. That has been one of the highlights of this, as well as being able to work in God's work. We're here on the day of Pentecost, and I'm always struck by the day of Pentecost. It's one of my favorite days. Well, all the holy days are favorites, right? I mean, not one of them can you pick out, but God has so much meaning packed into every day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a new beginning at the time of the New Testament. Apostles, when that congregation that was gathered there received the Holy Spirit, you could see the power in God's Word and God's Spirit as the people went out, and Peter gave a powerful message, and God added to it. And as we look at where we are in the world today, and the church, I believe this Pentecost will be a new beginning and an era for us to proclaim the gospel boldly to the world and make the world aware of what the message of Jesus Christ is, and for his people, you and me, and the first fruits he's working with, to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ, because as we are here, we see it growing ever and ever closer to us. You know, Mr. Brown mentioned read Acts 2 and verses 1 through 4, which I was going to open with as well, but I just want to draw your attention to one phrase in there.

It's as the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were together in one accord and one place, and it's really nice that all of you from this area is in one accord and one place. That's the message of Acts. You know, as you read through the book of Acts, you see that one accord in one place 10 or 11 times in the book of Acts and only one or two other times in the whole New Testament, it shows what God was about and what he wanted his church to be. And it's great that you're all together here on the day of Pentecost, and Pentecost has great meaning. As we go through each holy day, every year, and we repeat them over and over again for a reason in our lives, because God wants us to understand what the truth is, what his plan is, and I know that as you observe each holy day during the year, you learn more about what God's plan is, and that should encourage us, produce the zeal, and keep us all focused on what we are here for, even among all the diversions of the world that can keep us occupied and apart, maybe forgetting some of the time what we are here for. So today, I want to go talk about the meaning of Pentecost, and in some ways this is going to be a very, almost like a Bible study, so if you'll turn with me to Leviticus 23. Pentecost, as you know, is an unusual, unusual holy day. The other holy days, we're told, they occur on this day of God's, of a certain month in God's calendar, but Pentecost is the one holy day that's unique. It occurs on the same day of the week every year, but never on the same calendar day. And there may be a reason for that as we explore that. And the Pentecost, you know, when God introduces it, there's a whole, there's a whole journey, if you will, to get to Pentecost. He gives many verses, and how do we count when the day of Pentecost is? And we learn from those verses some of what this day, well, a lot of what this day means, and what it means to you and me. So let's, let's look at Pentecost, because the beginning of Pentecost goes way back to the beginning. We, you are familiar with the scriptures about unleavened bread, and we read about those in, uh, dominant verses in seven and eight. But let's pick it up in verse nine, because that's where the definition and what the meaning of Pentecost is. It says in verse nine of Leviticus 23, the eternal 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 its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. So we have the word first fruits right there at the beginning, and he shall wave the sheaf before the eternal to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Now we know that. I'll stop there, because there we have the wave sheaf offering. And you, I'm sure, are familiar with the wave sheaf offering. It occurs on the day after the weekly Sabbath that occurs during the days of Unleavened Bread. You can't separate Pentecost from the wave sheaf offering, because that's where the count begins. That's when we learn what the piece of Pentecost, some of the full meaning is. Let me just briefly recount that wave sheaf offering. You may have heard about it in this past Days of Unleavened Bread. But you know that in ancient times, as the harvest began, the first of the first fruits were waved before God on the first day, or on the day of the week following the Sabbath. And the rest of the... they could not begin the harvest, the rest of the harvest, until God accepted that wave sheaf offering. If we read down here in verses 11, it repeats that. It says, He shall wave the sheaf before the eternal. We read verse 11. And it then talks about these offerings that went along with it. And in verse 14, it says, You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought that offering to your God. It will be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. That was the Old Testament times. We know that Jesus Christ fulfilled that wave sheaf offering. He was crucified on Passover day, was laid in the grave in the tomb for three days and three nights. He was resurrected exactly three days and three nights after he was buried at the end of that Sabbath that occurred during the days of unleavened bread during that time. He was resurrected, and the next morning he ascended into heaven. Let's keep your finger in Leviticus 23 and just rehearse that for just a minute. If we go back to John 20. John 20 in verse 17.

Jesus Christ has already risen, and as Mary comes to the tomb to find him, she doesn't find him there, but he does speak to her. And there's a reason that these verses are in the Bible to let us know exactly what the situation was there and what was occurring.

Verse 15, you see Jesus talking to Mary. She recognizes who he is. She recognizes his verse in verse 16. And verse 17, as she's coming to him, and you can imagine the joy she's feeling, it's like he's alive. He is alive. But Jesus said to her, don't cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. At the very same time that in Old Testament times, they were doing the wave sheaf of the first of the first fruits, the harvest could not begin until that was accepted by God, Jesus Christ was ascending into heaven to be accepted by God as the first of the first fruits of the harvest of mankind. It's a in one way chilling, in another way awesome understanding of what God has done and of such a proof of the Bible of what Jesus Christ did. Now if we go forward to 1 Corinthians, I'm going to briefly mention Matthew 28 and I believe it's verse 7 and there, where later in that day when Jesus Christ saw the apostles, they did cling to him. So we have this, Mary, don't cling to me, I haven't yet ascended into heaven, but later that day they did cling to him after he had been accepted by God as the first of the first fruits. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15, or I should say forward to 1 Corinthians 15.

And in verse 20, we read about this first of the first fruits and the first fruits, which is a key component of this day of Pentecost. 1 Corinthians 15, but now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man, the man Jesus Christ, also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive, but each one in his own order. Christ, the first fruits, the first resurrected from the dead, a mortal man afterward, then afterward those who are Christ's at his coming. So there's the order. Christ was the first of the first fruits. Hebrews 6 tells us he was the forerunner for us. He set the example. He showed the way of two eternal life. In John 14 verse 6, when he says, I am the way, the truth, the life, he really meant it. He is the way to eternal life. We follow him and he set the pattern for all of us as he was the first of the first fruits. If we follow him, once God calls, because it's a very noble calling that he's given us, a very precious calling, I hope we never take it for granted or ever discount it, what God has called us to become first fruits after the order of Jesus Christ is something unique in history, unique in the history of the world. What he's doing with you and me is something that hasn't been done before. He has called us to become people like Jesus Christ, and he's given us this time to become like him. And that's a very important thing to always remember in our lives. There is this process with Jesus Christ, the harvest of the first fruits could begin. And now we're in that period of time where the first fruits and that harvest and the development of those first fruits could occur so that at that time when Jesus Christ returns, they can be reaped. So let's go back to Leviticus. Leviticus 23. We see the beginning of the day of Pentecost is tied to Jesus Christ. He was the forerunner. He's the one who set the standard, the example that we follow, as he lived his life perfectly. And even as we say that he was made perfect, he was already perfect, but he was made perfect through sufferings, it tells us in Hebrews.

He endured all that pain. He endured all that agony and learned something even as the Son of God, what it was like to be a human tempted in all points like is us. So that's where it begins. The day of Pentecost begins with that wave sheaf offering in Jesus Christ in the example he set.

We see that in verse 15. The harvest doesn't begin until then. He sets the standard. In verse 15, it says, And you shall count for yourselves from the day after that Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. And so you have this period that God says, count the days. He doesn't say that for any of the other holy days. He doesn't say, count those days, but for Pentecost, you have to count the days. And there's a lot that is implicit in those words that sometimes we overlook as we look at why do we need to count the days? We can look at the calendar, we can count the seven Sabbaths, we can kind of identify the date. You can look at the calendar that we issue from the church, and ten years from now, you know what date the Day of Pentecost is going to be on. But God wanted us to see something in that period of counting. I want to turn back or turn forward to Psalm 10, because there is something about counting the days that is different for you and me as mortal human beings who God is working with today. So Psalm 90, and verse 10.

God has inspired David to write some things about the days of our lives.

Now, I won't take the time to turn to Hebrews 7. You'll remember in Hebrew 7 where it's talking about Melchizedek, clearly Jesus Christ, the last verse of chapter 6 talks about Jesus Christ being the forerunner. Melchizedek has neither beginning of days nor end of days. When you're an eternal being, days don't matter. You have eternal life. But days matter to man, don't they? Because God is working with mortal human beings, and days count. We have no idea how many days we have on earth to live. In verse 10 of Psalm 90, it says, the days of our lives are 70 years. The days of Christ's physical life were 33 and a half years. As a human, he had a limited time to become who he needed to become and fulfill the commission that God had for him. And he did it perfectly. The days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they're 80 years, yet they're both his only labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Our days end. We don't know when those days will end. For some, it might be less than 70. For some, well more than 70, 80, 90, and beyond that.

In verse 12, well, let me reverse 11, who knows the power of your anger? For as the fear of you, so is your wrath. So teach us to number our days. Teach us to pay attention to the days we have, because we don't know when our days will end. Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom, that we may learn what God wants us to learn, that we may become who God wants us to become. All those days are very, very precious, and we have no idea when our last day may be.

No idea. So it's the imperative upon all of us to count the days, to make use of all of them.

You know, Paul says in Ephesians 5, redeem the time, right? Redeem the time. Pay attention to the days that you have, because the days are evil. He wrote that back in the first century, but today we can very well relate to those. The days today are evil. Make no mistake about it.

The days are evil, more evil, if we can use that comparative phrase than they were a few years ago, and they will become more and more evil. As Christ said, evil imposters will grow worse and worse until the return of Jesus Christ.

The days are evil, and the first fruits who are being developed, who are working toward that harvest and that completeness that we'll talk about that God wants us to have, have a limited time on this earth. So, you know, as God says, count the days, because for mortal human beings, those days are important, because we're not eternal yet.

We will be eternal when born into the kingdom, but we're not there just yet. In Psalm 39, Psalm 39 verse 4 as well, again, David, who understood the concept of these days are important to us. In Psalm 39 verse 4, he says, Lord, make me to know my end. I would like to know when my end is. Wouldn't we all like to know? I have this many more years or whatever, but God doesn't give us that, because if we did it, we would tend to relax, right?

We always have to have a sense of urgency. Any one of us, you know, we could get a notice that any one of us in this room, myself included, could be gone tomorrow, and that's the end of my life. The next second of our consciousness will be when Christ returns, if indeed we have lived our lives the way God has called us to, which is an important calling and responsibility that we all have. Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days that I may know how frail I am. Now, we understand it's not about us. We don't have the strength to do what God has.

We need the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that God gave on this day of Pentecost. Without the Holy Spirit, no way, no way do any of us qualify for God's kingdom. We need that strength and need to recognize of our own selves, just as Jesus Christ said amazingly so, of his own self, he said he can do nothing if it was true of him, even more so of us, right?

Of our own selves, we can do absolutely nothing. So count the days. It's an important part, and I know at the home office we have a, not a bulletin board, but one of the white boards that are up there, and this year, one of the people there did count the days. So every day that day counted. So as we walk by that white board, yep, today is day 35, day 45.

Friday it was day 48. Well, 48, I wasn't there on Friday, but 47 on Thursday. Important, important, and God's letting us know to you unique creatures who are who are called to be firstfruits after the order of Jesus Christ.

Count the days. Count the days because they are limited. In that same verse he says, count 50. Count 50 days to the day of Pentecost. And 50 is a significant number in the Bible as well. If you recall, it's the the jubilee year was 50 years. And what happened during the jubilee year? It was like a new beginning, a reset, if you will, for all of Israel. Debts were forgiven. People could return to their land. There was a chance, there was a time to start over. Life would begin anew. You might have made mistakes and had to sell yourself into slavery during those prior 50 years, but in the jubilee year, everything reset and people were able to return to their own land.

In the very same vein, Pentecost is a new beginning. When the day of Pentecost is fulfilled, when Christ returns, and the firstfruits in this life, the harvest that he will reap at the time of his return at the 7th Trump, everything will be new. Life was new when we, when God called us, when we repented, and when we received the Holy Spirit, a new creation. We were a new, we were a new creature in God's side, a babe.

And we learned through that process in that life, we learn and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Becoming stronger every year, maturing more every year, every year, through all the years that God gives us to live, and those years are in his, in his order, in his control, not ours. But we learn as we're called, we need to be becoming ready for the harvest, we need to become ready, we are set the standard Ephesians 4 to the measure and stature of the fullness of Christ. That's the goal. That's what you and I have been called to do.

Not an easy thing to do? Impossible without God's Holy Spirit. That's why when the New Testament Passover or Pentecost began, God gave the Holy Spirit because it could not happen without God's Holy Spirit. So let's go back again to Leviticus 23, and as we build what God is teaching us about Pentecost in those intervening verses between the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost, called the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Harvests, if you will, in the Old Testament as well. We learn many things about that. You know, through the Bible, I'll just briefly mention this.

You know, days have a meaning even beyond our days. You know, you will remember in Daniel 12, remember the last verses of Daniel 12, blessed is he who comes to the 1335 days, and then at the 1290 days, and then the 1260 days. None of us know when that 1335 days is, do we?

We'll know when the 1260 days is, maybe in retrospect, as opposed to knowing exactly when that day began, but blessed is he who comes to the 1335 days. Just sometimes think about that. What is God saying? We'd better be ready for whenever that day is, because it could be at any time God determines. We don't know. We don't know, but we know that time is getting closer, and closer, and closer. For firstfruits, for firstfruits of God that you and I have been called to be, there has to be the sense of urgency, there has to be the focus, there has to be the commitment on what God has called us to be. Because what he's called us to be transcends anything that could possibly be even appealing on this earth, more than the 2.1 trillion dollars, or the billions that we could have, right? More important than anything this earth has. God has promised us.

You and I have that opportunity, but we have to make choices, and we have to make sure that that's part of who we are every day of our lives as we go along, as we go around our business, as we go around our schooling, as we go around our commerce, as we go around our neighborhoods and things like that. Christians, true Christians, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So we go back to Leviticus 23 again, and proceed through the scriptures here. In verse 16, I'm going to read it. Again, count 50 days, number those days, pay attention to the days, when that Pentecost is fulfilled, there will be a new beginning. It'll be a Jubilee year, free from the ravages of humanity and morality, and when God raises us into incorruptible bodies, free from the shackles of this world and the mortality that we all have. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. That's where we are today. And we're right where God wants us to be, in one accord, in one place. Then, you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord, and you shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be a fine flower, and they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord. A lot is said in that verse. This is an unusual offering, a unusual wave offering, if you will, to God. Two loaves.

The first, the wave sheaf offering, was just cut the grain. That's what the priests did in Old Testament times. Cut the grain and wave it before before God. Then, when that was accepted by God, then the harvest could begin. Then you could eat to the grain. But here, on Pentecost, 50 days from that wave sheaf offering, now bring two loaves to God. Two loaves to God, baked, not raw, baked with leaven. Where else does God ever say, bake it and wave these before me with leaven? In those verses, we find, and we learn a lot about ourselves and a lot about what God is doing. So let's spend a little time digging into that verse and diving deeper into it. Two wave loaves God says bring before Him. What are those two loaves?

Well, maybe we thought about that some and thought about those two loaves. When we think about two in the Bible, we can think of Old Testament and New Testament. Two parts of the Bible. All one, all continuous, all symmetrical, all one plan of God from beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation, but divided into Old and New Testament. We can think of the time before Christ, the time where the Holy Spirit wasn't poured out on all men that God calls, and the time after Pentecost where He does pour out His Spirit on all who He calls. There's that time.

And as we look in Deuteronomy, we see that God works with two groups of people and has them in mind. If we go forward to Deuteronomy 7, we see in Old Testament times that He was very, He was very much watching over Israel. They were His own special people, if you will. Abraham had obeyed God implicitly. He believed in God. He had faith in God. When God said go, He went. He didn't argue. He didn't resist. He didn't have excuses. He just did whatever God asked Him to do. God said that faith was accounted to Him for righteousness. But here in Deuteronomy 7, on verse 6, God inspired Moses to say to the people of Israel, as they were about to cross over into the Promised Land, you are a holy people. Deuteronomy 7, 6, you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. You're that group. What God wanted Israel to become was what we are called to become as well. He wanted them to practice His laws, apply His laws, embrace Him, embrace His way of life, and do the things that He wanted to do. And He said, I'll bless you forever if you'll just do what I say. But He didn't have the Holy Spirit. And what we learned from them, while their hearts might have been willing because we hear them say, we will, we will, but then they don't. Whenever they're faced with a choice, they make the wrong choice. They choose the world. They choose the way the nations around them live. And we learn, even though the heart is willing, we need God's Spirit to give us the strength and the determination, and we need to choose to use that Spirit to choose His way over what we naturally want to do. And so they were His own special people, but they failed.

They failed. They rejected God. And over time, even though He brought them to the Promised Land, He allowed them to go into captivity. First, Israel, because they completely rejected Him from the time that Jeroboam took over when Rehoboam, the house of Israel, split under Rehoboam. From the time of Jeroboam and the Jew to follow the same way, even though they had the example of Israel that they lost their kingdom, they continued in their own ways rather than following God. And in 586, they lost it as well and lost their kingdom. And so Israel, God still loves the people of Israel. He still looks out over who the children of Israel are because He made promises to them. But they're not the special people that they could have been today. Today, in 1 Peter 2.9, we find a different group of people that God says, you are my own special people. In Hebrew, 1 Peter, 1 Peter 2, 2 and verse 9, to this New Testament group of people, He says, but you, you, now this would be you and me, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people, who once were not a people, not the same people of the Old Testament, who once were not a people, but now the people of God, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. His own special people who were not a people, so a different people than just Israelites by birth, but a group of people that are different, different than that people, but the group of people that God is working today that are called firstfruits. The firstfruits that He is working with. So as the day of Pentecost came upon the church in 31 A.D., and God poured His Spirit out on the 120 who were assembled in one accord, in one place, on that day, you see the disciples become different people as they went out from that room that they were in, where all those things happened. The sound of the rushing mighty wind, the fire descending on heads, the people hearing in different languages as God blessed them with that. They were a different people and they went out. Before they were a little timid, they were waiting for God, what will happen? But then they proclaimed the truth of God boldly. They said it clearly and succinctly. This is who Jesus Christ was. This is who you put to death. This is what He came to earth to do. And by their word, inspired by God, and as God opened minds through His Holy Spirit, 3,000 were added to the group in that day. An enormous amount of people in one day. Different people. God's Spirit made a difference in their lives and the people of God, this special people that God was calling and working with, grew during that time. And has continued through the years. Today we have the same group of people that God is calling by the same Holy Spirit, by the same truth, that know the truth of God, that believe in Jesus Christ, that understand the kingdom of God, that understand that Jesus Christ is returning, that are living their lives in complete submission and yieldedness to Him, allowing Him to live His life in us and direct us in the way we should go.

Those are the people that He's working with.

On that day of Pentecost, it was Peter. Peter who went out and he spoke that sermon.

Words that God gave him, he didn't prepare that sermon ahead of time. God gave him the words that he was going to speak that day as he went out. But Peter, even though he had walked with Jesus Christ for three and a half years, he waited, he believed, God revealed to him he's the Son of God, he had a lot to learn. There were still things Peter had to learn, just like you and I have a lot to learn yet. And as Peter worked with the group there and the people that God was calling, his eyes were opened as to what God was going to do. And so he would, you know, he had God give him the power to heal the sick, even raise someone from the dead. That had to be an amazing thing for him as his faith in God grew and as he saw what God was working through him and the other apostles.

As the group there was there in Jerusalem and then after the stoning of Stephen, who boldly proclaimed to the Sanhedrin who Jesus Christ was and what they had done to him, you remember in Acts 8 that a great persecution arose at that time and they were scattered. They were scattered and they began to preach the gospel in the Samaritan cities. And while they were there, many were called.

Mines were opened and God was opening, opening salvation, truth and eyes to the truth, even among the non-Jews. Before that, the Samaritans were not well received by the Jews. There was two groups of people there. You know, we don't really care for the Samaritans and the Samaritans knew the Jews didn't care for them. But here God was calling Samaritans and as they went on, wow, he was even going to call Gentiles. He was even going to add Gentiles to this group of people.

You know, in Acts 10, let's go back to Acts 10, we see as God uses Peter to come to Cornelius's house and all of a sudden Peter has this awareness. God opens his eyes as he's working with the house of Cornelius. You remember in the beginning of Acts 10, God has this vision that comes upon Peter with the sheet that comes down and God says, rise, kill, it had all manner of animals in it. Peter repeats, no, I've never eaten anything unclean. I've never eaten anything unclean. Finally, finally he gets what that vision is about. That God wasn't talking about animals, but you can't call any man unclean either. The Jews had done that. Gentiles are unclean, Samaritans are unclean, we don't even associate with them, right? There's this division that's there. This wall between the Jews and everyone else. And we see that in the Bible. You have two groups of people. There's the Jews and then there's everyone else. So, but Peter learns what God is going to work in Acts 10.

If we go down to, let's see, let's go to verse, well, let me just go down to verse 43. Peter is giving quite a sermon to Cornelius in his household as he's there. And in verse 43, he wraps up what he's saying. He says, to him, talking to him, all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in Christ will receive remission of sins. And then the light dawns. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those are the circumcision. Those are the Jews. And those are the circumcision who believed were astonished. What? What's going on here? As many as came with Peter because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. And Peter answered, can anyone forbid water that these shouldn't be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? Look, God has given them the Holy Spirit. They're doing exactly the sign of the Holy Spirit that we had on that day of Pentecost.

It was God's decision to call Gentiles to give them the Holy Spirit as well.

And in verse 48, he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.

And of course, they asked him to stay a few days.

We drop down to chapter 11. There were Jews who had to understand this is a new day. This is a new beginning. God is working with a new group of people, not just ethnic Israel.

And so Peter goes back and he recounts this whole experience to them. And in verse 15 of Acts 11, as he's recounting this to the Jews who were gathered there, he says, I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?

When they heard these things, they became silent.

Wow. They understood. Look what God is doing. We didn't expect it. We maybe should have known, because there was a clue back in Luke that Jesus Christ came with his death and becoming the first of the first fruits. He didn't die for just the Jews. He didn't die just for you and me. He died for all of mankind, all of mankind who ever lived, that their sins could be forgiven.

If we fast forward back to Luke 2 for just a second.

When Christ was born and Mary and Joseph brought him to Jerusalem to fulfill the law of the newborns at that time, you'll remember in Luke 10 that there was a man by the name of Simeon who was there at the temple. As we look at Luke 2 verses 25 and 26, the Holy Spirit revealed to him that he wouldn't die until he saw the Christ.

Mary and Joseph brought him to him. In verse 27, it says, he came by the Spirit, Simeon, into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took Christ up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all peoples alight to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. These two groups of people, he will bring glory to the Gentiles and to your people. Mary and Joseph heard those words. In verse 33, it says, they marveled. They marveled over those words. What is Simeon saying? And in another verse, it says, Mary would just keep these things in her heart.

What does it mean? Sometimes we hear things. It's like, what does that mean?

And sometimes God doesn't give us the answer right when we want it to be there. We keep it in our hearts. God will eventually show how it all fits together. Mary, later in her life, would have understood, look, look what Jesus Christ did. He's bringing salvation to everyone.

Jews and Gentiles, two groups of people, both sinful people. You know, as Paul wrote to the Romans, the first two chapters in Romans talks about the sins of the Gentiles. Very clearly obvious, right? Very clearly obvious as the sins of the nation today and the morality that we're living. Very clearly obvious that it's in complete contrast to the way of God. So the ways of the Gentile absolutely contrary to the way of God. But in chapter two, he also talks about the sins of the Jews. You're both sinners in different ways, but you're both sinners and you need Jesus Christ and to believe in Him and turn to Him because that's where the remission of sin has come from. And he's speaking to a group in Rome that's made up of these two different groups that God is bringing together as one. As one. Because that's what His will is. This special people that He is calling. We go forward to Galatians. Galatians 3. And it wasn't Peter or any of the other 11 apostles that were the apostle to the Gentiles.

God called Paul in a most miraculous way and trained him. And it was Paul who was the apostle to the Gentiles and worked with them. In Galatians 3 and verse 8, I want to read just because, again, even going all the way back to the promises made to Abraham, God used the word all about all the nations. The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand saying, in you all the nations shall be blessed. Not just your descendants, in you all the nations will be blessed. And as you go down to verse 26, as Paul is talking to this group of Gentiles who are now of the people of God, they have God has called, God has, they have repented, they have been baptized, they have received the Holy Spirit. He says, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.

There is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. The people of God, his own special people, two people combined into one people from two groups that historically had been apart and diverse.

Jesus Christ came that we would be reconciled to God. Not just Israelites, but all, his will is at all, would be reconciled to him. Salvation is for all of mankind. We go to a couple books forward to, well, one book forward to Ephesians. Ephesians 3. I'm going to read the first six verses here in Ephesians 3 because Paul is writing to this group at Ephesus. You know, he says some meaningful words to us, instructive words, eye-opening words, that shows what this day of Pentecost meant to the world and to all of mankind. Ephesians 3 verse 1. Paul writes, For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for you, how that by revelation God made known to me the mystery, let's eliminate the parenthetical phrase right there and go on with the thought, how that by revelation God made known to me the mystery, verse 5, which in other ages, those other ages are the six that come before this age that we're currently in, the day of Christianity, the day of the Holy Spirit, the day that Jesus Christ, the day where Jesus Christ and people could become Christians, the day when is salvation for all people. You know what I didn't mention back when I was talking about days? Remember, too, that this is our day of salvation. What we're counting today is the day that we need to be very aware of when what we are doing and what God is working with us. There is no second chance. This is our day of salvation. For the rest of humanity, it comes at a later time in the second resurrection. But anyway, going back to this, which in other ages was not made to known to the sons of man. They didn't get it. They didn't understand that God was going to open up salvation to all of mankind. The Jews thought it was just them. But now, in the age of Christ, in the age of the Holy Spirit, in the age of the church, now that revelation has been made, which in other ages wasn't made known to the sons of man, as it has been revealed now by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ through the Gospel. They didn't get it, but now we do. Salvation for all mankind, whoever God will call from every tribe, nation, tongue, ethnicity, background, a whole special people that God is working with that are going to be that are called first fruits. Remember, there's two loaves that God says, bake them with leaven. They are leavened people. They are sinful people. The remission of sins through Jesus Christ. But these two loaves get waved before God. Let's go back to Ephesians 2 here.

Ephesians 2, and let's begin in verse 11.

Paul, again writing to this group, therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, oh, in the flesh, but now part of the spiritual body of God, therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the circumcision, the Jews, you're uncircumcised, you are persona non grata, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of Provenus, having no hope and without God in the world. Just like you and me, before God called, no hope, no hope. It was God who gives us the hope and a purpose in our life. But now, verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. That middle wall that separated Jews from Gentiles and divided people. He is the one who brought them together. It is it is Christ who has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity. That is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to created himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body, through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. I'm going to go ahead and continue reading. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, that's the Gentiles, and to those who were near the Jews. For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. The spiritual building that God is building, that includes all who he will call.

All who he will call. Now I'm not going to take the time to read in Ephesians 1, but it does talk about that God predestined those who he would call to his purpose. That's you and me, and anyone who is listening to this purpose. God opened our minds. It's not because we're so wise, we're so smart, or we have such intellect. It's because God opened our minds to what the truth is. And when he called us, what he has in mind is that we will become his sons. In fact, when we receive his Holy Spirit, he calls us children of God. That's what he sees us being. That's what his will is. He will give us everything we need to become his children and to be born into his kingdom if we continue to follow him, if we continue to yield to him and use this Holy Spirit that he has given us. The two have become one. You and I are to become one with each other.

So one of the messages of Pentecost, right? With each other and with God and Jesus Christ, all together as one family, all together united in purpose, united in mission, united in truth, united in everything and in every way that God wants us to be.

In Leviticus 23 it says, wave these two loaves with leaven. They're sinful people.

But there's the other word that's in that verse in Leviticus 23 somewhere in 17 to 20 there.

These people are baked. These people are baked. Bake those loaves with leaven.

Not just raw grain, not the animal sacrifices, but wave these two loaves. They've been baked. How have they been baked? Through the life that we live, right? God gives us a limited number of days. From the time that we're baptized, we can count the days, or God can count the days, until the time we die or the return of Jesus Christ, whichever comes first. But we have the days that God prepares us. When we bake something, those of you who are bakers, it's like, you know the ingredients, you know exactly what goes into that bread to make it, have that sweet smelling aroma that when it comes out of the oven, everyone's like, wow, it's fresh baked bread. What a sweet smelling aroma to God. In 1 Corinthians 1-2, it talks about the fragrance of Christ. He was a sweet smelling aroma before God when we yield to God, when we allow Him to develop us and grow us and put all the ingredients into us that we need in order to become who He wants us to become. And it's different for each of us. The trials I go through will be different than the trials you go through. The tests that you go through will be different than the tests that I go through because God knows us. He understands us. He knows exactly what we need to be able to develop the character and the continuing growth and the faith that we need to become the people He wants us to become. And that goal is to be like Jesus Christ. He's the forerunner. He's the one who set the way. He has the truth. He has the way to life. He's the one that we emulate. He's the one who we need to become like. And that needs to be our overriding goal in our daily lives, physical and spiritual. That bread that's baked. Baked with time. Baked over time. He's the baker. He knows exactly how to make that bread into what He wants it to be. In other places in the Bible it talks about where the clay and He's the potter, right? He's the clay. The clay never says to God, no, not this way or to the potter. No, no, no. That's not the form you want. The potter gets to do everything he wants. The clay is just there to be molded into the shape that needs to be. So it is with us. God will mold us. He knows what we need. He will shape us because His will is you become first fruits. That you are waived these two lows. That you are first fruits to God as Jesus Christ was the first of the first fruits. Become like Him, He said.

So let's look at Romans 8 for a minute. Romans 8. And we won't look at the whole chapter. You know Romans 8 is the kind of call it the Holy Spirit chapter in it. Paul well defines and describes the difference between the will of the flesh, the will of the Spirit, and who we are to be. But let's look at Romans 8 and verse 23.

In the preceding verses, it talks about even creation, right? Even the earth is waiting.

It says, for the revealing of the sons of God, waiting for the revealing of these first fruits. When Jesus Christ returns and at the last trump, those who have through their lives become who God wants them to become, will be resurrected and be harvested by God and given the eternal life He promises. In verse 23, Paul writes, not only that, now let me read verse 22 to keep the thought, for we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now, birth pangs, the time that's about to happen when the delivery of new life occurs. Not only that, but we also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption or the sonship, the redemption of our body, eagerly waiting, looking forward to that time. And if we're looking forward to that time, if we have that hope, what does it say in 1 John 3? Anyone who has this hope in him, what does he do? He purifies himself. He becomes like Christ. As sin is revealed, and as the days of the unleavened bread occur throughout our lives, when sin is revealed to us, we put it out and we put the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth in, continually growing more and more like him.

If we are eagerly waiting for the redemption of our bodies, eagerly waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, that's what we will be about. People that are doing God's will. Let's go to Revelation 14, because it tells us there what these first fruits are like.

These first fruits, these two loaves, waved before God, baked with leaven, they are the first fruits.

Revelation 14, verse 1. I looked, Apostle John writing this, under inspiration from God, I looked, and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with them 144,000, having his father's name written on their forehead. They have God's name, and I heard a voice from heaven like the sound, or like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders.

And no one, no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. Only by the Spirit of God can you know what that song is. Who are those who have the Spirit of God?

The first fruits. These are the ones who were not defiled with women. They've shed themselves of all the false teachings and all the things that they've grown up, the traditions. They now live by every word of God. If God says it, we do it. We don't add to it. We don't take to it. His word is the foundation of everything we do. These are the ones who are not defiled with women for the first people who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Not resisting, not saying, not now, not there, wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. You and me. And everyone listening to this and observing the Day of Pentecost and the way God intended it toolated to be. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault. They are without fault before the throne of God. They've become spiritually mature. They've become like Christ. Doesn't mean they're absolutely perfect, but God sees their intent and their will is to become like Him. When He shows a fault, weakness, they don't battle it. Whatever you say, God, whatever your will is, they learn to live by every word of God. They learn to do what He says because they are completely yielded to Him and they are eagerly waiting, eagerly waiting for the return of Jesus Christ and not devoted to the flesh, but to look voted to what God is working in us. Their lives may extend until the time that Jesus Christ returns, or their lives may end in times before that. Not one of us knows whether we will be alive when Jesus Christ returns or if His be His will when our days are numbered according to Him, that we will die and we will wait for the return of Jesus Christ and that next moment of consciousness when He returns. Count the days. Use the Holy Spirit. Let's remember Pentecost and always, always remember to use the Spirit that God gives us to become everything He wants us to become.