Why Pentecost?

Well, thank you, Mr. Pachanger. Good afternoon, brethren, and happy Sabbath to each and every one of you. A week from tomorrow, we are coming up on a holy day that, as a young boy in the Methodist Church, was the only of the Hebrew holy days as a Methodist that we observed, and that was the day of Pentecost. And in the Methodist Church, which I grew up in as a boy and a young teenager, the day of Pentecost was basically observed in a very special way. It had special meaning. We were prepared in advance for it. We had a special sermon that day focusing on the message of the Holy Spirit given to the Church, and it was indeed observed in a very special and unique way. And, of course, other Protestant groups did something similar. You may have heard the term, Wit Sunday. That comes from an old Anglican phrase sometimes Pentecost is called in some Protestant churches, Wit Sunday, because people would wear white and there would be scheduled many baptisms on the day of Pentecost, and that's where the term Wit Sunday came with the Protestant Church. So the Catholics were doing their own thing on the day of Pentecost, and obviously as a young Methodist we were doing our thing on the day of Pentecost, and I'm sure it was slightly different. Well, about six weeks ago we celebrated the seven days of unleavened bread. We celebrated those days, as we do every year, in celebration of Jesus Christ, the bread of life who died for us and offers to continue to live in us throughout our lives. And, as always, we found the days of unleavened bread to be meaningful and spiritually rewarding.

Well, a week from tomorrow we'll have yet another opportunity to celebrate a festival that God ordained that reminds us of the salvation offered by Jesus Christ and the next step in His plan of salvation, that is doing something very special that He offered for His people, giving them a helper and a comforter, offering His church and offering His people as individuals His Holy Spirit. And, as we come upon this time of the year, I think it's always helpful for us to review from biblical history from both the Old Testament and the New Testament this period of time why we observe the day of Pentecost. And we'll see a little later if, indeed, like occurred in my childhood experience, is it right to just wrench one holy day away from the others and pick and choose and say that this day we will observe is special but the other days no longer have any meaning. God's religious feasts are associated with agricultural harvest. Now, in Palestine, there were two harvest seasons each year. The first small harvest occurred in the springtime and it was reflected through the spring holy days. Later on in the fall there was a much larger harvest. It occurred during the fall of the year and it obviously was reflected through the fall holy days. What we're talking about are those events that occurred in that much smaller harvest of the spring holy days. And in the Middle East, the spring harvest season lasted seven weeks, which is a long harvest season, beginning with harvesting the barley that came out that was able to ripen before the wheat. I'm not sure why. My theory is that barley makes much better ale than wheat does and God in his great love and mercy decided to offer that first of mankind. I can't turn to a scripture to prove that. You'll just have to trust me on it.

But the first harvest was barley and during that seven-week period the grain would also come to fruition and they would begin to harvest the grain and then something very special happened at the end of those seven weeks. Of course, we know it that's the day today. We call it the day of Pentecost and that was when the spring harvest season ended with the wheat harvest festival.

Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 23 beginning in verse 6 and read a little bit about this very special period of time. What we're going to see here actually occurred during the days of unleavened bread, taking us back and proving once again that you cannot separate Pentecost from God's other holy days. You don't even know how to count the day of Pentecost unless you are observing the days of unleavened bread. Unless you understand the rich meaning behind the days of unleavened bread, that it's hard to understand why God would even want to give his comforter to give his Holy Spirit to his church on the day of Pentecost.

Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 6. And on the fifteenth 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. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. So everyone stopped working on the first day of the feast.

On the seventh day of the feast they stopped, they rejoiced, and they celebrated God's festival. You shall do no customary work on it. Continuing the end of verse 8. Then 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 its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. So in essence what they would do is they would go out, they would get some of the barley that was beginning to ripen, and they didn't just bring one stem in, they didn't bring one stalk in, they brought a bundle in.

They would bring a bundle to present it to the priest, and the priest would take that bundle, and he literally would wave it back and forth as an honor and a glory to God, thanking the great Creator for providing this harvest that was about to begin. God is the giver of all good. He is the giver of the things that we need to sustain human life, including good food. And it was a way of thanking and acknowledging God's intervention in human affairs into the nation and thanking him for providing this harvest that was about to begin.

Now let's go down to verse 14. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Lord. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings, and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, this was during the days of unleavened bread, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed.

Verse 16 counts 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. And that new grain offering 50 days later would be made out of wheat. It wouldn't be made out of barley. So what these scriptures tell us is during the days of unleavened bread, a special ceremony would occur on the day after the weekly Sabbath, usually during the feast itself.

The first bundle of newly harvested barley grain was brought to the priest. This fresh harvest was presented to God as a wave-sheaf offering, and of course there were other offerings that went along with it. The Israelites were not to eat any new barley harvest until this special offering was made on the day after the Sabbath. But from that time on, the next seven weeks were something that were very joyful.

If you'll turn to Deuteronomy 16, verse 9. After seven full weeks, again on the morning after the Sabbath, another grain offering was made to God during a special holy day. This day was originally called the Feast of Weeks due to the fact that it occurred seven weeks after the barley offering.

However, seven weeks, 50 days later, seven weeks plus one day, this grain offering was made with wheat. And there were some unique aspects of it, including the presentation of two large loaves of bread mixed with lemon and olive oil before God. But I won't get into that. I won't take away from anyone's thunder next week. I think what is good for us to remember is that the Israelites celebrated the entire seven-week period with joy.

In our society today, it's hard to appreciate that, but the harvest season began during the days of unleavened bread and lasted seven weeks and culminated on what we today call Pentecost, which again is a Greek word that means 50. But during those seven weeks, it was a period of joyfulness. Why? Because the sustained human life requires food, a constant supply of food. And during those seven weeks, much like the way you might feel if you have a home garden and you go out and the first tomato ripens on the vine.

Or maybe you're growing corn and a few stalks survived that the raccoons didn't get. And the joy that you feel as you pull back on that ear of corn and those juicy kernels are underneath it, that same feeling that we have, they were able to enjoy being an agrarian people for seven weeks. And first, to begin the seven weeks, the joy of any harvest. But then, as period went on, you're able not only to supply your immediate needs, but now you're able to store away some of the crops, some of the later barley, their early wheat, and literally store it away for a time when you'll need it in the future.

So we oftentimes miss the aspect that it was an entire seven weeks that the harvest occurred, and during this period of time, people were rejoicing. But specifically regarding the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, here's what God spoke and commanded in Deuteronomy chapter 16 beginning in verse 9. And I'm going to read from the New Century version because I think it's a very powerful translation of these words. It says, Count seven weeks from the time you begin to harvest the grain and then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God. Bring an offering as a special gift to Him, giving to Him just as He has blessed you. Rejoice before the Lord your God at the place He shall choose to be worshipped. Everybody should rejoice. You, your sons, your daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your town, the strangers, orphans, and widows living among you, remember that you were slaves in Egypt and carefully obey all these laws. So I want you to notice here what it tells us that everyone was encouraged to rejoice. Salvation, why? Because salvation, and this is what this foreshadowed, would someday be offered to everyone no matter what their station in life. The gospel, the good news, salvation would be offered to strangers, Gentiles. It would be offered to elderly folks who had lived most of their lives and God would call them at age 80 or 90 and they were widows. It would be offered to teenagers as they would begin to have their minds opened like I did at age 16 and 17, some of whom were orphans, maybe physical orphans or spiritual orphans. It would be offered to employees. It would be offered to people who own businesses. This foreshadowed and reminded the people that there would be a time when something very special would occur for all people from all around the world and for that reason they were certainly to rejoice. The events of the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost foreshadowed the church receiving the Holy Spirit to harvest the firstfruits God would call from all over the world. This is why we preach the gospel and why we prepare a people for greater service.

From this original history of the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament, now let's go to the New Testament time period as recorded in 31 A.D. if you'll turn to John 19.

And we're going to see in the New Testament how well Jesus fulfilled most, if not all, of the aspects of being the complete wave-sheaf offering because some aspects of it are constantly being fulfilled and are yet to be fulfilled. But we'll see how well Jesus fulfilled the role of the high priest in becoming the ultimate wave-sheaf offering.

We're going to go to John 19 and pick it up in verse 30. In 31 A.D. Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday afternoon. We know he was dead three days and three nights as he said he would be, as he predicted, and he rose late on Saturday afternoon. So we're going to pick up the story here in 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 the spirit. Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the body should not remain on the cross, on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. This is a very important scripture missed by most people, including those dear Methodist pastors that I had as a child, because they just assumed that it's the Sabbath that this day must mean Saturday.

And therefore, since Jesus died before that, that it means that the crucifixion occurred on a Friday.

Here's what verse 31, how it is translated in the New Century version.

This day was preparation day, and the next day was a special Sabbath day. Well, what made it a special Sabbath day? The fact that it was a holy day. It would actually be the first day of unleavened bread. It wasn't just a typical Sabbath that, of course, falls every week on Saturday, on the seventh day of the week. It was, as the New Century version says, a special Sabbath day. Continuing the translation, since the Jews did not want the bodies to stand across on the Sabbath day, they asked Pilate to order that the legs of the men be broken and their bodies taken away.

So it is now afternoon and nearing the evening of the first day of unleavened bread, called a high day, or a special Sabbath. In 31 A.D., the year this occurred, the first day of unleavened bread was on a Thursday. Remember that Jesus had instituted the Passover the evening before, so that he could be the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover by dying around the exact time that lambs were being slaughtered in the temple that year. The Jews observed the Passover on the evening of the first day of unleavened bread. One day later, then Jesus had taught his disciples the New Testament Passover should be observed by his own example. And they obviously wanted the bodies down from the cross and buried before sunset, when the first day of unleavened bread would begin.

Now let's go to John chapter 20 and pick it up in verse 1. And we'll see how this ties together with that very magnificent event spoken of in Leviticus 23 regarding that barley offering, that early offering that occurred during the days of unleavened bread. John chapter 20 and verse 1. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. She goes there very early on Sunday morning, the first day of the week. Jesus is already resurrected. He's already gone.

He's gone because he had been resurrected actually on late Saturday afternoon, the day before. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, quote, now at this point her faith isn't as great as we might want to give her credit for. She thinks that they have just stolen Jesus's body. Probably the Jews who want to make him look bad and want to prevent anyone from claiming that he's resurrected may have literally stolen his body and taken it somewhere else. And she's concerned. She says to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. So she doesn't think that he's resurrected yet. Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and they were going to the tomb. So they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And of course this other disciple is none other than John who's writing this account. That's how he knows so much detail. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying there. Yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and he saw the linen clothes lying there and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first, went in also and he saw and he believed, verse 9, for as yet that they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away to their own homes. Now when it says there at the end of verse 8 that he went in also and he saw and believed, it doesn't mean at this point that he believed that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead. What he believed was is that the body was gone. Mary was right. The body is missing. There is no corpse of Jesus in this tomb.

So notice on early Sunday morning, well before sunrise, that Mary went to the tomb. She finds it empty. She ran and she told Peter and John and the two disciples went to the tomb and they found it empty except for the burial cloths and they went away to their homes kind of confused and kind of afraid because they don't really know yet what's going on. But you know, while these events were occurring on early Sunday morning at almost this exact time, just a short distance away, the priest in the temple that was still standing at that time, a short distance away, was putting on his clothes, putting on his very special clothes and preparing for the wave sheaf offering that would occur during that year. Almost at the exact time these events are occurring. Now in John, chapter 20, we're going to pick it up in verse 11. But Mary stood outside of the tomb weeping, and as she wept and she stooped over and she looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them again, she doesn't at this time grasp that he's been resurrected, she says, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. Now when she had said this, she turned around 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? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away.

And Jesus said to her, Mary. Now it's interesting that up to this point she didn't recognize that it was Jesus. It could very well be that the disfigurement that Jesus had when he was beaten and scourged before his death may have left scars on his face. We know that later on, he had scars in his side. He told his, encouraged his disciples to put their fingers in the holes in the side of his body. And the Romans, particularly being the gruesome type that they were, used to love to try to beat the face when a person would go through scourging.

And obviously, you can imagine how terrible a leather strap with pieces of bone and metal into the end of it would disfigure the human form. But it could have been the fact that he had scars, that he wasn't easily recognizable, but there was something about the inflection of his voice, particularly when he called her by name.

And he said, Mary. And she turned to him and said, Rabboni, which is to say, teacher. And he said to her, Do not cling to me, don't touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending. Jesus said, I'm going to be leaving immediately, real soon. I'm going to the father. Make sure that the brethren understand this. I am ascending to my father and your father and 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. So let's kind of recap what we read here so far. Mary stays at the tomb weeping after the other two disciples had left, and she re-enters the tomb. She sees two angels who speak to her. Then Jesus appears and speaks to her. At first, she doesn't recognize him at all.

Again, it may have been because he was disfigured. The Greek word for gardener is kipuros, and it means a garden keeper or a warden. The man doesn't immediately look like Jesus at all, but he continues to speak, and she recognizes him through the inflection in her voice, particularly when he calls her name.

She realizes in her excitement that it's Jesus, and she's ready to embrace him, ready to put her arms around him and naturally give him a huge hug, and he stops her. Now, why? Well, it was the very day after the weekly Sabbath, during the days of Unleavened Bread, on this very morning, just a short distance away, in the temple, a priest was preparing to offer the first barley grain that would thereby begin the seven-week spring harvest season.

In a spiritual sense, to transcend that human activity that was going to occur, Jesus was literally, as the ultimate fulfillment of the wave-sheaf offering, going to leave this earth. He was going to ascend to the Father's throne and be accepted as the first of the first roots, because he was resurrected from the dead, the firstborn of many brethren, but more importantly than that, as the great, eternal, high priest and mediator for all of mankind. He was going to ascend to his Father's throne, and he was, as it said in Leviticus 2311, remember this phrase, the offering was to be accepted on your behalf.

Why is this important? It's important because not only are our sins forgiven because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and we learned about that in the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, but now we are reminded that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is accepted on our behalf and that he has become our righteousness. That's a very powerful meaning that goes just beyond your sins being forgiven. To continue to have a relationship with the Father, we have to be righteous, and none of us can be.

We're human. We're carnal. We make mistakes. We're flawed. We fall short. But Jesus Christ himself was going to the throne of God to be accepted on your behalf because his righteousness would become our righteousness. And though we are weak and we're struggling with our problems and our sins and our flaws, God would continue to love us and work with us and even offer us his Holy Spirit and call us his beloved children. Beginning with Christ, the spiritual firstfruits or the smaller harvest of God's children would now begin. And from that day on, including today, God the Father would begin to call and elect few to prepare for service in the kingdom of God and to prepare for a time when a far greater harvest would take place.

There's a business term that's often used today.

It's called train the trainers. Oftentimes when a business wants to have a new initiative, they want to introduce something new into their business. Rather than just having one person stand up and pontificate to everybody about this change, what they'll do is something called train the trainers. They'll take a handful of the leaders in the organization and they will thoroughly train them on this new initiative and this new program. And then they will leave it up to the trainers who are excited and have bought in and understand the value of this new initiative. And the trained trainers will go out and they will teach the rest of the employees of that business the new program of the new initiative, the new policy. And that, in essence, is what God has been doing since the time of the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to his church. God has been training the trainers, those whom he is calling now, for greater service throughout all eternity, including into, well into, the kingdom of God. John chapter 20. We're still there. Let's pick it up in verse 19 and see how quick this event occurred that Jesus was able to ascend to the Father, to be accepted as the ultimate wave sheep offering, to be recognized as the high priest and mediator for all of mankind, and he was able to return to earth the same day. Because when you're a spiritual being, you can travel at the speed of thought, which I might add is a little bit faster than the speed of light, which is a limiting principle for physical things as the speed of light. When you're a spirit being, you travel at the speed of thought. It says, then the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be to you. Now, can you imagine how startled they were? They're kind of edgy anyway, as any of us would be. They're confused. They're not sure what's going on. The door is shut. It may have even been locked. And suddenly, Jesus appears, having walked through the door, literally, walked through the door without an opening or walked through the walls and says, peace be unto you, just like nothing's happened. Good morning! How are all of you doing today? So they had to certainly be startled. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. And again, there were scars in them, much like he may have had scars on his face that had confused Mary.

Then the disciples were glad that they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. So what this scripture tells us is, on the same day that he had spoken to Mary, that he had ascended to the Father, and he had fulfilled all that the day represented should be fulfilled, at that same time that he did that, he returned to earth and he literally walked through a closed door, the startle, the disciples. As a matter of fact, in Luke's account, we won't turn to in chapter 24, he told them, handle me and see me. So he went from the point with Mary where he said, don't touch me. And now he's been accepted by the Father. He's ascended and been accepted and completed his role. Now he returns and he literally encourages the disciples to touch me and handle me and see that I indeed am Jesus and what I experienced during the crucifixion. So he refused to allow Mary to cling to him, but he had returned. And now he was offering for the disciples to touch him who were in the room. Jesus was now, had become once and for eternity, the great high priest. And remember in Leviticus 23, the priest was to take a sheaf or a bundle of grain and present it to God. Going back to Leviticus 23 where we started, not a single stalk of barley, but a bundle was to be taken by the priest and waved as an offering to begin that harvest. So let's ask the question, was there a bundle of firstfruits immediately redeemed by Christ? Was this too also fulfilled by something that occurred at this time? Turn with me if you would to Matthew 27 and beginning in verse 50. Matthew 27 and verse 50. Jesus is now the high priest as outlined in the book of Leviticus.

And again, the priest was to take a sheaf or a bundle of the barley grain and present it to God to begin the harvest. And of course, we know that was just a foreshadowing of the great harvest of souls that would begin by the smaller harvest of the springtime. Matthew 27, verse 50. Going back to the moment he died with some commentary after it for a few days, it says, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Now, when did this occur? Verse 53. And coming out of the graves after his resurrection, they went to the holy city, and they appeared to many. So why did the bodies of the saints also come out of their graves when Jesus was resurrected? Well, remember the command to bring a wave-sheaf bundle, an offering in Leviticus 23? The people were to bring that bundle of grain and be presented before the Lord.

The saints came out of their graves representing the initial part of the bundle to begin God's harvest of souls. Now, we don't know who these saints are. It doesn't mention them by name. We don't know if they were followers of Jesus who died during his ministry. We don't know if they were prophets of old. We don't know if they were individuals who had received God's Spirit from the Old Testament times, because it doesn't mention who they are. We simply know that it happened.

So even though only Christ went to heaven to ascend to his Father as the Son of God, there was a resurrection of saints that were symbolic of the start of the small spiritual harvest made possible by the life of Jesus Christ, by the fact that he came out of the grave, that he ascended to the Father and became the ultimate wave-sheaf offering and our great High Priest. These saints lived out their physical lives, and they died once again. The symbolism was fulfilled exactly as said would occur in Leviticus 23, symbolized by that barley, that wave, that small bundle being offered was fulfilled. So what did Jesus do between the days after his resurrection and the approximate 40 days before he ascended to heaven? Let's go to Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. Acts chapter 1 and verse 1.

Luke wrote, The former account I made, O Theophilus, all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering for many infallible truths, being sent by them during 40 days and speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So what Luke is saying here is by many infallible proofs to a large number of people, for 40 days he appeared, many, many people saw him, spoke with him, and he spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 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, which he said, You have heard from me. 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 is 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 Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. Now when he had spoken these things, and while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

So for forty days, Jesus taught and instructed them to become witnesses and ambassadors for the kingdom of God. Their lives and their message was to reflect everything that Jesus Christ taught and believed in. They proclaimed a future restoration of the kingdom of God on this earth. And after his ascension for the remaining ten days until the literal day of Pentecost in 31 A.D., the 120 disciples gathered together in constant prayer in fasting.

Now I want to go back to my experience as a child growing up in the Methodist Church.

The Church of my childhood observed Pentecost Sunday and gave it special significance and observance because it was considered the birthday of the New Testament Church.

And indeed it is. This observance of Pentecost Sunday is very noble.

But there's a logical and a theological problem with this approach.

Let's begin by going to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 2.

Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 2 and begin to see the logical and the theological problem with just wrenching one of the Hebrew Holy Days out and saying, this we observe, this we acknowledge as important, this should be honored and respected, but the others are obsolete. The others have been done away because they no longer have any meaning in the New Testament or for New Covenant Christians. So Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 2, Scripture, many of us old-timers have probably read hundreds of times, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts, that's plural, of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And it begins to clearly delineate what God's feasts are, beginning with the Sabbath, including the Feast of Weeks, what we've come today to call Pentecost, but intricately tied in with many, many others. Brethren, Pentecost doesn't stand alone.

It's part of a package of festival days, and when one is wrenched out of that package, it loses its rich meaning. It loses the meaning that it was intended to have from the beginning, because it's been taken away from its roots, from the things that connect it to other important events. Of course, we don't observe holy days to be saved. We observe the holy days because we are saved. They're the only religious days that are mentioned and endorsed in the Bible to be observed.

And though there are some of particularly religious persuasions who look for every opportunity to avoid worship of God, we believe that it is always good to worship God, particularly on the days that He has taught and enjoined in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Together, they remind us on a yearly basis what Jesus Christ is doing now as a Savior and what He promises to do in the future. We're going to look at some examples. As I actually begin to close the sermon today, we're going to end a little bit early. But I wanted to look at some examples to see why this approach is not logical and certainly is not theological. First of all, the mention of many of the holy days as part of church history is recorded in a book called The Book of Acts. The Book of Acts, like Luke, was written by a Gentile convert to Christianity. His name was Luke, and Luke was Paul's traveling companion. It's thought that Luke was born in Antioch. Luke itself is a Greek name, and Luke was obviously a Gentile. In one of Paul's writings, he did not include, as a matter of fact, he excluded Luke from those who were, quote, of the circumcision. So Paul said he was not circumcised. Luke itself is a Gentile name. And when you go through the Book of Acts, you find how often Luke meticulously wrote about how often the believers and the apostles would stop what they were doing to observe the holy days. Now, why would a Gentile named Luke write about all of these holy days? Why would he do this? Someone once said to me, time demarcations. That's why they weren't observing any of those things. They're just time demarcations. Well, why would a Gentile use Hebrew time demarcations? You know, I'm an American, and unless I embrace the Buddhist faith, if I were writing about Buddhists, if I were using time demarcations being an American, I would say a week after the Fourth of July, or a month after Memorial Day, or on Thanksgiving Day of that particular year, because that's the way that I was brought up. I was brought up in American society.

My time demarcations are according to my culture, and unless I embraced another culture and became someone who was writing, the only way that I would mention their time demarcations was if I had embraced them as my own. So again, why did the Gentile Luke record these events? He recorded them because they reminded the believers. They reminded them of the year on a yearly annual basis what Jesus was doing now as the Savior and what he promises to do in the future. Let's ask some questions and delve into this a little more deeply. How does one even determine the day of Pentecost?

Well, one counts from the previous Holy Day season called the Days of Unleavened Bread.

It's by understanding what those days represent and the rich meaning of the fact that Jesus Christ shed his blood as the ultimate Passover to forgive all of our sins, and that we are reminded that we need to take sin out of our lives, and we need to become as righteous as we can possibly be, that leads us to the point to understand, after a period of time, that we are hopeless without the help of God's Holy Spirit. Though we are forgiven of our sins represented by the Passover, though we struggle to overcome our own personal sins and faults as represented by the days of unleavened bread and taking leavening out of our homes, we come to the conclusion that we need God's Holy Spirit. We need that Helper. We need that Comforter. We need that extra power that comes from God to give us the encouragement and the strength to take sin out of our lives.

And the Day of Pentecost isn't mentioned just in Acts 2. It's also mentioned again in Acts 20 and verse 16 because they observed the Day of Pentecost. Now, I might not be very good in math, but if someone tells me that in Acts 15 at a ministerial conference they determined that all the holy days are done away, then why would the Day of Pentecost be mentioned in Acts 20 and verse 16? The last time I checked, 20 comes after 15. If these days are done away, why would the days of unleavened bread be mentioned as being observed in Acts 20 and verse 6? Again, I believe that 20 comes after 15. If these days were done away, then why would Paul be observing the Feast of Tabernacles in Acts 18 and verse 21? Let's actually turn to there. There are some who want to believe that Acts 15 settled the matter and did it all, meaning that the holy days are now obsolete and they don't need to be observed. So let's see what we find in Acts 18-21.

We'll actually pick it up in verse 20. I believe 18 comes after 15.

When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent. What do you mean he didn't consent? Isn't he a pastor? Isn't his job to stay with people and to train the trainers, to coach them, to love them, to nurture them, to help them along? It is. But in Paul's mind, there's something even more important than that. Verse 20, and when they asked him to stay longer with them, he did not consent, but took leave of them, saying, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, even more important than nurturing you as a people. And you have so much to learn, Paul said, by adios, hasta la vista, baby, because there was something even more important than that. It was more important for Paul to go to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Tabernacles, and then he said, but I will return again to you, God willing. And he sailed from Ephesus.

The last time I checked, 18 occurs after 15. Paul doesn't say it would be nice if I go into Jerusalem. He doesn't say, I'd like to go to Jerusalem. He says, I must by all means go to Jerusalem by... I think it's a pretty powerful commentary. How about Acts chapter 27 and verse 9? Let's see what this Gentile named Luke wrote in Acts chapter 27 and verse 9.

Luke records now when much time had been spent, and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over. Paul advises them, and Paul says a few words. Now, every commentator, I've never seen an exception. Every commentator will say this is referring to the Day of Atonement. In Hebrew culture, the fast was just what the Day of Atonement is. It's the the most important. The head honch, you know, it's the big fast. That was the Day of Atonement. So again, let me ask the question, why is a Gentile like Luke using Hebrew holy days to define when everything has happened? How would a Gentile like Luke even know about the Hebrew holy days, unless he was taught them, unless he was observing them, unless they were considered important in his life and in the life of the Apostle Paul, as in this case? The last time I checked, 27 occurs after chapter 15. So, if in theory that all of these holy days were done away at Acts 15 at the ministerial conference, then why did they forget to tell Luke and Paul? If these holy days are done away, then what has we, what right do we, to pluck one out of all of them, just one, the one that maybe meets our agenda and say, yes, we'll observe the Day of Pentecost, but all the others are archaic, obsolete Hebrew holy days that have no meaning for today. Brethren, our theology has to be logical, theological is what it's called. So, how do we know we have forgiveness of sin?

It's because the holy days and the period before Pentecost, known as the Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread, teach us that.

Why do individuals even need the Holy Spirit? We need it so that we can continue to overcome sin and be used by God for a greater service in the family of God. God is training the trainers.

When will we be used for greater service? Well, we'll be used for greater service beyond this lifetime when Jesus Christ returns to earth, and that's pictured by another holy day called the Feast of Trumpets. And at that time, all the saints from throughout history will either be resurrected from the dead or changed in the twinkling of an eye and will at that time be used for greater service. The trainers will have been trained, and now will be time for them to take a leadership role to prepare for a much larger harvest that will occur throughout the kingdom of God.

What other way will the saints be used for greater service? Well, they will be used, as the book of Revelation says, that Satan and his influence will be removed from the earth. And it says that Jesus, associated and accompanied by his saints, will do those things. And that's pictured on another Hebrew holy day called the Day of Atonement, or in Acts 27 referred to as the fast.

Well, what other way will the trainers have been prepared for greater service? Well, that will be the establishment of the kingdom of God over all the earth, beginning in just Jerusalem, pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles and the judgment of the last great day. You see, brethren, we can't just wrench, conveniently, one of the holy days out of Leviticus 23 or out of the book of Acts and say, yeah, we'll keep this because this is in the book of Acts. But all these other days that are also in the book of Acts, they're obsolete, they're void, they're no longer valid. We have to be consistent. Our belief in our theology has to be biblically based and not based simply on man's agenda, on man's anti-Semitic feelings and hatred towards the Jews and anything that was ever associated with Judaism. We cannot allow ourselves to be affected in that way. So, brethren, in conclusion, these are the days that God revealed to ancient Israel, including the day of Pentecost. And they, indeed, were observed by the disciples as recorded in the New Testament, not isolated, but as a complete package. Because they all tie into one another, they are all part of God's great plan. To pull one or two out is special, while ignoring the others does injustice and is ill, logical, to the meaning of each day, to the package, and to the great plan of God. Have a wonderful week. We'll see you next Sabbath, and we look forward to celebrating the great day of Pentecost with all of you a week from tomorrow.