WEBVTT

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chapter 2.

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As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter. Please follow along silently.

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Acts chapter 2, the Bible reads,

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

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And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled

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all the house where they were sitting.

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And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

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And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as

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Spirit gave them utterance.

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And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

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Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,

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because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

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And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another,

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Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?

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And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

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Parthians in Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia and Injadea and Cappadocia,

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and Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene,

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and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues

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the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another,

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What meaneth this?

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Others mocking, said, These men are full of new wine.

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But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto them,

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Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words.

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For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

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But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

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And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh,

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and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your

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old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days

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of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth

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beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

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The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

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And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

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Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you,

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by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know.

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him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,

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ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,

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whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death,

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because it was not possible that he should be holding of it.

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For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face,

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for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.

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Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad.

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Moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope,

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because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.

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Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

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Thou wast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

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Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David,

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that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.

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Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,

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that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.

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He seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ,

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that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

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This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

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Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received to the Father

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the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see in here.

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For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself,

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The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.

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Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,

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that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

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Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter,

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and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

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Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

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For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

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And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

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Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

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And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

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And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles,

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and all that believed were together and had all things in common,

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and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need.

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And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house,

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did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all

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the people. And the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved." Brother Alex,

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could you pray for us, sirs?

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Amen.

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And Peter's just preaching Biblical history. He's ripping on the Jews. He's preaching the gospel

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He's saying you'll make me full of joy with that countenance. So this like the positive stuff in there, too

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it's a well-rounded sermon for being so quick and

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You know, he's in it's actually pricking them in their heart. It's actually it's an effective sermon

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They want to have their sins forgiven, a bunch of people get baptized, and then all these newly saved people are greatly enjoying and being charitable in this community at the end and praising God.

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And so it's just like, you know, that's the whirlwind synopsis there.

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That's the Cliff Notes, and it's an incredible chapter.

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I like Pentecost. It's a cool holiday. I'm not going to let the Pentecost steal it from me.

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And when I was a little kid growing up in the Presbyterian church, they would always bring a

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fire truck from the South Charleston Fire Department to the church for Pentecost, this big red truck.

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And because you've got these cloven tongues of fire coming down on people's heads,

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it's kind of odd to bring the fire department that's supposed to put out fires to Pentecost.

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I think it was just an excuse to let us climb on the fire trucks and have fun.

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But you know, red is traditionally the liturgical color associated with it for that reason.

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Alright, but you know, what's going on here when the Holy Spirit comes down and sits on their heads

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and they're filled with the Holy Ghost and they speak in tongues and all this stuff.

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Well this is, this was promised to them by Jesus.

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Prior to his ascension this was promised just one chapter previous if you turn back to Acts 1

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It's back one chapter

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Acts 1

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I'll start and I'll start in verse 2 until the day in which he was taken up

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After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments under the apostles whom he had chosen

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To whom also he showed himself alive

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after his passion by many infallible proofs

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Being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining of the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them

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Commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the father which saith he ye have heard of me

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And of course, it says for John, truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with

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the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.

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So this is already...

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40 days after the resurrection and he says not many days since and of course Pentecost is

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50 days after

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the Passover in the Old Testament or after the end of the

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the entire Passover, right? So in this case after the resurrection, it's 50 days later.

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And so that timing in the New Testament, the Old Testament is the same for that 50-day period. Very interesting.

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Alright, let's open with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to preach here to your people and just

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help me to say good things and

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not say anything that's incorrect and just be with us here tonight in Jesus name we pray amen.

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All right, in

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Luke 3 16 another great promise you don't have to turn there, but it is one of the great three 16's in the Bible.

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Luke 316, John answered, John the Baptist of course, John answered saying unto them all,

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I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.

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He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

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And so all the way back at the beginning of the New Testament, John the Baptist is saying this day of Pentecost is going to happen.

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He doesn't specifically say that it's going to happen.

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in coordination with this Old Testament feast, but you know, maybe through a glass darkly someone might have

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been able to figure that out the different feasts in Leviticus 23 and stuff.

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It technically wouldn't be impossible. I don't think though that there's any evidence that someone specifically

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tied that together yet.

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But God is a God of timing, right?

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Bible says he appointed the moon for seasons, the sun knoweth his going down.

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There's a lot of other verses like that that just talk about how God sets all these cosmic

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things in motion.

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And so I think the liturgical calendar, even in cases where we can't prove the exact historical

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date of an event like Christmas, it gives a rhythm to the year.

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it up.

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In order, it reminds people of important lessons on a repeating basis, which is kind of what we need as humans.

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Because we can't simply be told something once and then have it down.

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We all know that that's not how we are.

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And so we need to be reminded of these things annually at least sometimes.

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And so again, what is Pentecost?

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To give you the the very zoomed out view from you know the neutral view from the world like I asked AI, right?

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The source of all good things, but it was correct in its answer right now

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I think because I continued to look into it further in the Bible and elsewhere

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So but it says Pentecost meaning 50th in Greek

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I think of like pentagon, pentagram, you know, so forth. It's a five prefix,

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and then it, but I guess the Pentecost makes it 50th. So it originally refers to the Jewish

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feast of weeks. They call it Shavuot, like my boss was saying he's going to celebrate Shavuot.

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Celebrated 50 days after Passover.

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In Jewish tradition, it marked the end of the spring barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest.

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So barley and wheat mature at different times.

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I think that that's a picture of the Old and New Testament, you know churches like the barley barley can grow in tougher soil

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it's it's a little bit more durable, but wheat is more valuable it's better for bread and

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So forth and so on, you know life was a bit harder in the Old Testament

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You know without having the permanent indwelling of the Holy Ghost and they didn't have they saw through a glass darkly

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They didn't have the entire body of scripture

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and then the wheat harvest it's a much bigger more valuable harvest in terms of the number of souls

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but that's an aside from the ai here and says it was also associated with the giving of the

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torah to moses at mount sinai it's leviticus 23 and the renewal of the covenant with god and

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and because it's Exodus 34 and the feast involved offerings of bulls, rams, lambs, and grain.

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And AI left out the goat that they're supposed to do.

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And it was a pilgrimage festival where Jews from various regions gathered in Jerusalem.

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And they're supposed to sacrifice a certain number of lambs and certain number of rams.

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And you add them up and it's like 12 animals plus one goat.

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So it's like kind of kind of interesting because you got the 12 apostles and then judas

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But like I don't I don't know if that's a symbolism, but it did match up in that way

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So pentacos symbolizes the transition from the old covenant to the new covenant

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um

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Which of course 50 days after the resurrection the new covenant's technically already

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you know operating but this is sort of the formal or the the this dramatic beginning of the new

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testament church in this fashion um

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And so you've got the spiritual harvest of souls instead of the wheat harvest, right,

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and the empowerment of believers to spread the gospel. And so it's connecting this Jewish

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harvest festival and the celebration of the law with the Christian mission, which is also in a

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way a harvest festival, but it's a celebration of grace. So it's a very clear transition and

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continuity with the Old New Testament, but also shows the difference, right.

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So again, historically, it's the feast of remembrance of God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses

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fifty days after the Passover, fifty days after they had left Egypt.

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And that's when he laid out the Ten Commandments and then later gave them rules about celebrating

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the feasts.

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you

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that celebrate that event, you know, in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

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And so God bringing the law to Moses in the Old Covenant was a major turning point in human history.

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because those laws that they've gone over all over the world they've pricked men's conscience

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all over the world being a schoolmaster to lead them to christ of course even in the old testament

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there were people hearing about these laws or reading the books of moses and converting

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you know even though they weren't ethically jewish that's always been a thing and

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So the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ.

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And so the first Pentecost, so to speak, the law came, right?

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And at the second Pentecost, if you will, or rather the first Pentecost of the Christian Church,

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the Spirit of God was given to believers in a dramatic fashion.

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And, you know, just imagine something like that happening after you got saved.

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I mean, most of us got saved in...

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you know depending on your personality or the circumstance or whatever maybe it was slightly

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dramatic maybe you cried or something maybe some of you might not though i mean so like it

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definitely like there wasn't a bunch of people with fire over their heads speaking in languages

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this was this was a very this is a very dramatic event to sort of

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Bring the New Testament Church onto the scene in a way that the people could really feel it was real because remember

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The church was a very small organization back then it didn't have

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Any sort of validity put onto it by the world or by the Jewish leaders or really anybody?

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Other than than Jesus when he had to been here in the flesh

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And so, you know and again this first Pentecost on on Mount Sinai if you will

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that was

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frightening and terrifying to the people. Remember they said,

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Moses, you go talk to him. We don't make him stop. Make God

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stop doing this. We're scared. And so God, you know, because

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God thundered and smoked on the mountain. Well, you know, the New

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Testament, Pentecost, Jesus describes this as the sending of

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the comforter.

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You know, so it's much more joyous and comforting to be in the New Testament than to be under the law.

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You know, it's a little flame, it's not a whole mountain on fire like blowing up and smoking.

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It's something personal to the believer that's harmless and actually comforting.

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And Isaiah, in Isaiah 64, he kind of...

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whether he could foresee this specific event, he's kind of asking for another appearance of God like at Mount Sinai.

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In Isaiah 64 verse 1 he says,

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O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down,

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that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.

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As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil,

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to make thy name known to thy adversaries, that the nations may tremble.

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at thy presence.

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When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down. The mountains flowed down at thy presence."

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And so Isaiah's remembering that first Pentecost and he's saying, God, wouldn't you come down again

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with some fire and show both your adversaries and the nations that they need to fear you?

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And, you know, but so he's kind of hoping it's going to be something like epic dramatic like um...

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like the Sinai, but you know it was a little different you know in the New Testament when

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when God appeared in that way. But also you could say that this also in Isaiah 64 is prefiguring

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when you know the day of the Lord and it will be pretty terrifying. So there's kind of a

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double fulfillment of this at least if you will. But

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we do see here that Isaiah longed for another appearance of God before all the people,

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and that is kind of what happened because you had basically probably the majority of the

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saved people in Jerusalem involved in this Pentecost event. Now I realize they were getting

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people saved in the other villages and things like that, but this was the core group there.

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And so in Luke 1024,

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Jesus says, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you

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which ye see and have not seen them and hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them.

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And so again, Isaiah's hoping that God would come down and show himself. Jesus is saying, hey,

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there's many prophets and kings that wish they could have seen this stuff and they weren't able

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to. So you know, it's a wonderful thing to be in the New Testament.

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We not only have the entire New Testament, we also have the Holy Ghost to guide us in all truth.

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And so even the most spiritual men of the Old Testament that were probably better men than you

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or me, they simply just didn't have access to the same level of knowledge we do, you know,

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if we wouldn't neglect it, right? I mean it's available to us, but

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not everyone attains that just because it's available.

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It's like we have the entire body of human knowledge available to us in the Smithsonian

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and Oxford and Cambridge and everything else on our phone and we watch like dog videos

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or something.

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So it's just human nature.

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But much, much studies of weariness to the flesh.

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But the point is that we have access to so much knowledge in the New Testament we shouldn't

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take it for granted.

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and um

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And Peter says about Christ that,

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Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,

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he hath shed forth this which ye now see in here." And so this is he's saying that about Pentecost,

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that it's the fulfillment of the promise of the Holy Ghost, and that's what you now see in here.

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And so Pentecost is the fulfillment

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This promise of the Holy Ghost. It's a promise that's given in Joel

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And it mentions that in Acts 2 that this was prophesied by Joel. Well, you know

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I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and

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And then of course if you go on to read what he's saying about Joel

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It's talking about the moon being turned into blood and so there's gonna be a there's a double fulfillment here, but

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Peter is through the Holy Ghost, he's saying that it is one of the fulfillments though is this day of Pentecost and

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so

24:01.320 --> 24:05.160
again, we sometimes just take for granted how good we have it in the New Testament like

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You know being born in the New Testament spiritually is kind of like being born in America

24:11.120 --> 24:16.540
carnally if I could make like the comparison is like if you just lived here your whole life and you've never been abroad you

24:16.540 --> 24:18.540
Might not know how good you have it

24:19.900 --> 24:23.980
you know because we can't really go back to the Old Testament and see what it was like but I mean

24:23.980 --> 24:29.260
I think it would be a little bit burdensome and even gruesome you know sacrificing all these

24:29.260 --> 24:36.060
hundreds of animals and you know not having deodorant and you know not having a modern

24:36.060 --> 24:42.460
toothpaste just like a lot of things I wouldn't want to do but

24:43.500 --> 24:48.860
The focus though of this chapter, even though it's about the Holy Ghost coming down, the

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focus is still on Christ.

24:50.340 --> 24:55.780
That's what, even though Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, he's preaching about Christ.

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Because the Spirit, Jesus said the Spirit will not testify of himself, he'll glorify

25:01.740 --> 25:04.980
Christ.

25:04.980 --> 25:10.500
Now again, one of the ways we have it's better in the New Testament is that

25:11.400 --> 25:19.520
once the Spirit comes into the believer, once the Holy Ghost comes into the heart of the believer,

25:19.520 --> 25:21.720
it won't depart from us.

25:21.720 --> 25:24.200
In the Old Testament, this wasn't the case.

25:24.200 --> 25:30.040
And I think when I've talked with people about, man, how is it that like saved guys

25:30.040 --> 25:33.040
would end up doing like idol worship and stuff in the Old Testament?

25:33.040 --> 25:37.160
Because like if someone was bowing down to a statue, like...

25:37.400 --> 25:40.680
from our congregation we'd be like wow that person was an infiltrator

25:40.680 --> 25:44.120
that's probably a reprobate or something right but

25:44.120 --> 25:48.120
it's i guess it's easier to understand if they if it was possible for the holy

25:48.120 --> 25:52.360
spirit to depart from that person but then still be saved that's just

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something that we can't experience now it just literally can't happen but the

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old testament it happened in first Samuel 16 14 it says but the

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spirit of the lord departed from Saul

26:04.300 --> 26:11.180
An evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. That's terrifying to me. Like can you imagine I mean

26:11.860 --> 26:14.880
Yes, it would encourage you to be on on good behavior

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But human nature being what it is like we just you know, it's all even a great man ends up in this situation

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and

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You know, but when Jesus says talks about the comforter

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In John 14 it says and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter

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Capital C comforter. It's a Holy Ghost that he may abide with you forever

26:42.240 --> 26:46.440
Right that this great the great him under his wings with a refuge in sorrow

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How the heart yearningly turns to his rest?

26:49.920 --> 26:54.440
Often when earth has no balm for my healing there. I find comfort in there and blessed

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Under his wings who from his love can sever under his wings my soul soul shall abide safely abide forever. So

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Because we're under a more excellent ministry, right?

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And Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, which is established upon better promises like the fact that

27:18.300 --> 27:26.060
Even if you're a crumbum Christian at least you have the Holy Ghost still inside you like that's that's that's a great comfort

27:26.220 --> 27:30.960
The I mean the overall message of Pentecost is very encouraging and comforting

27:32.100 --> 27:38.480
And so I mean Christianity just in general has much better promises than any other religion

27:38.480 --> 27:44.360
I mean that the God of the universe is really here personally with you at all times

27:45.500 --> 27:51.500
not some faceless vague life force or mystic karmic energy,

27:51.500 --> 27:57.500
but real persons with names and voices and feelings,

27:57.500 --> 28:03.500
the person, Jesus Christ, and the person, the Holy Ghost, right?

28:03.500 --> 28:08.500
Living inside you, it's very different than say...

28:09.100 --> 28:14.860
the gods of the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Babylonians and the Romans and the Germans, right?

28:14.860 --> 28:24.420
And so on. These entities might pop into your life once in a while to help you out if you've been persistent in sacrificing to them.

28:25.100 --> 28:30.060
but they're busy doing other things most of the time. For adventure they're taking a nap or

28:30.860 --> 28:38.540
right when Elijah mocking the prophets of Baal. And generally if you read like

28:39.180 --> 28:42.460
maybe like the Greek accounts of them interacting with the gods they only take a

28:43.020 --> 28:44.860
special interest in certain special people.

28:45.700 --> 28:50.260
And even then they're not always acting benevolently. Like they get jealous of Hercules.

28:50.260 --> 28:58.500
Like in some of the gods are trying to stifle him and some are like sympathetic to him and same with like Odysseus and all these folks, right?

28:58.500 --> 29:05.540
It's a very, you don't have a very good stable comforting relationship with those gods.

29:09.200 --> 29:14.640
I mean, the Greek gods, it's a lot more like having a crazy girlfriend than having the Holy Ghost.

29:16.240 --> 29:19.200
They're very fickle and sometimes they throw people under the bus.

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But then you say, well, you know, that's just paganism. Like everyone knows paganism's

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out of fashion, right? But I mean, the god of Islam or Mormonism,

29:33.440 --> 29:35.920
their promises will basically offer you a harem in the sky.

29:36.400 --> 29:42.120
Which is the kind of promise that the carnal mind of man would imagine

29:42.880 --> 29:48.160
Right that like he'd grant to himself for his friends like well if I was God I would give myself a hair

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I'm like, that's what like that's like what the flesh would come up with or

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reprobate mind really but

29:57.400 --> 30:04.860
And then you have the gods, you can even go down the rung like to the Canaanites and the Carthaginians

30:04.860 --> 30:09.100
and the Aztecs where their gods want you to kill people and sacrifice humans and

30:09.500 --> 30:14.020
you know just to gain some advantage in your harvest or in war and so

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All these promises are worthless compared to what God has in store for them that love him.

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Like we have the best deal going.

30:23.200 --> 30:30.320
in any religion for sure. Aside from, even aside from eternal life in heaven,

30:30.320 --> 30:36.880
we have the best deal. And so it's, so Pentecost, it's a day of comfort. The Holy

30:36.880 --> 30:41.320
Ghost is sent to comfort us. His presence gives us not just assurance of pardon of

30:41.320 --> 30:42.100
sin,

30:42.500 --> 30:48.800
Assurance of our justification with God but also all these all the other benefits to come with the Holy Ghost the bond of peace

30:48.800 --> 30:53.740
Between brethren all the all the positive virtues that are the fruits of the spirit

30:54.260 --> 30:58.460
And the assurance that God is with us in this present world also

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The assurance comes important from God performing these kinds of great miracles like at this feast of pentagon

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in order that we in turn can perform the things that he's asked of us. Now other religions,

31:14.240 --> 31:17.600
because it's a day of comfort but it's also a day of them getting to work because like now they're

31:17.600 --> 31:21.520
going to go evangelize the world. They've been given the tools to do this at this point, right?

31:21.520 --> 31:28.080
So it's comfort but also comfort so that you can go work. There's always a balance, right?

31:28.080 --> 31:30.600
We're not just to rest on our laurels.

31:31.200 --> 31:37.600
But now other religions, what are the work they ask you to do? Other religions, they often ask like evil things.

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Like as I mentioned with the Aztecs or the Phoenicians, like this little bit of an extreme case, but

31:42.800 --> 31:50.800
they also might ask silly and arbitrary things like repeating the same phrase to Mary a thousand times.

31:50.800 --> 31:56.200
Like, that's not how I talk to my mom. Like they say she's their mother, but like...

31:56.400 --> 31:59.680
That's a really weird way to interact with your mom. That's super weird.

32:00.560 --> 32:07.280
Like no one calls their mom and does that. Or you know you have to eat fish on Fridays.

32:08.720 --> 32:12.800
Like where's that in the Bible? This is like that's like saying you got to wear like a green shirt

32:12.800 --> 32:16.720
on Tuesdays and eat hamburgers on Wednesdays. It's just it's bizarre.

32:18.900 --> 32:25.060
you know, Christianity's requirements are all reasonable and they're often helpful to the

32:25.060 --> 32:30.820
believer and God has promised to help us and to give us the means and the heart and the mind to

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accomplish them. That's part of what's going on in Pentecost. He's giving them the comfort,

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He's giving them the power of the Holy Ghost to go and do these things.

32:40.500 --> 32:46.260
So this chapter is incredible. It's packed with doctrine, verses one through eight.

32:47.800 --> 32:52.800
You have sort of the miracle itself.

32:54.300 --> 32:58.800
A rushing wind from heaven and it filled the house and there appeared under them

32:58.800 --> 33:02.800
cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them.

33:02.800 --> 33:06.800
So wind and fire, these are often pictures of the Spirit of God.

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They were all filled with the Holy Ghost.

33:09.800 --> 33:14.800
It began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

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And it also says that

33:26.100 --> 33:32.100
they were dwelling in Jerusalem, development out of every nation under heaven. So that's pretty

33:32.100 --> 33:38.580
important because it's really making clear that the gospel, the new testament, this is for

33:38.580 --> 33:44.660
everybody, right? It's not for the Jews. It's not a restricted thing, right? And

33:47.460 --> 33:52.820
Peter preaches that the promises are to the Jews and everyone else too, to all that are far off.

33:54.200 --> 33:56.200
Pentecost kind of announced

33:56.640 --> 34:02.960
And other parts of Acts announced, you know, the Jews and Gentiles as equals in terms of the plan of salvation and God's promises

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But this idea is found in the Old Testament as well, but culturally, you know

34:08.200 --> 34:13.180
Especially by this time many Jews had not internalized this this notion and we know

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Later that you know, Peter and Paul would be at odds

34:17.400 --> 34:24.360
for a time over this issue of integrating the two into one body without distinction, right?

34:27.800 --> 34:34.120
But of course Peter comes around, okay, and he brings up Pentecost and also an event in Acts 10

34:34.120 --> 34:40.200
where the Holy Ghost descends on Gentiles and Jews alike in a rebuke of the Pharisees in Acts 15.

34:40.200 --> 34:44.120
In Acts 15 and 17 he says, and when there had been much disputing,

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with the Pharisees, Peter rose up and said unto them,

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Men and brethren, you know...

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How, that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should

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hear the word of the gospel and believe, and God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness,

35:04.620 --> 35:10.140
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us

35:10.140 --> 35:13.020
and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

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Now, therefore, why tempt ye God, and put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which

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neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?"

35:21.740 --> 35:29.100
So Peter 100% comes around to the correct position by the middle of the book of Acts,

35:29.100 --> 35:36.020
and he was already kind of there in Acts 2, but he got just a little bit sidetracked along

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the way.

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And he's saying there's no difference between us and them.

35:41.200 --> 35:47.600
And so these people that heard the gospel in their own language, these were not all

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ethnic Jews, as it includes proselytes and so forth.

35:53.920 --> 35:59.280
This is just another nail in the coffin for dispensational theology, right?

35:59.280 --> 36:04.920
Dispensational theology, like aka biological racists who would preach that, like the ancient

36:04.920 --> 36:08.440
Israeli bloodline is what gives someone standing with God.

36:09.400 --> 36:11.400
It's just not true.

36:11.400 --> 36:13.400
Matthew 3, 9 says,

36:13.400 --> 36:15.400
And think not, say within yourselves,

36:15.400 --> 36:17.400
We have Abraham to our father.

36:17.400 --> 36:19.400
For I say unto you, that God is able

36:19.400 --> 36:21.400
of these stones to raise up

36:21.400 --> 36:23.400
children unto Abraham.

36:23.400 --> 36:25.400
And of course we all know the verses,

36:25.400 --> 36:27.400
the promises are to Abraham, seed,

36:27.400 --> 36:29.400
such forth and so on.

36:31.400 --> 36:33.400
And Peter

36:34.500 --> 36:39.140
He preaches and he brings up the Day of the Lord and the other harvests.

36:39.140 --> 36:43.700
It's kind of tying together to the Harvest Festival of Pentecost with like

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the current and future harvests that are going to happen and you know at the end of the world and stuff.

36:51.780 --> 36:59.460
So, but one thing I want you to notice about this chapter is yes you have this dramatic miracle.

37:00.500 --> 37:05.380
at the beginning, but what's the miracle for? The focus of the first church service and the focus

37:05.380 --> 37:12.180
of the chapter that records it is the preaching. Like the purpose of the miracle is that all these

37:12.180 --> 37:18.020
people get preached to and then it specifically gives us Peter's preaching. So we emphasize

37:18.020 --> 37:20.020
preaching to traditional Christians.

37:20.900 --> 37:26.180
Traditional, like in quotes, right, like Catholics and whatnot, right, traditional Christians say

37:26.180 --> 37:32.900
the emphasis should be on the ceremony, on the liturgy, on the, you know, the incense and the

37:32.900 --> 37:38.900
going back and forth with little brass objects and all this stuff, right? That's what they say

37:38.900 --> 37:41.460
the emphasis should be on and...

37:42.100 --> 37:48.620
Contemporary Christians, you know, just using that term broadly say the emphasis should be on the praise music, right?

37:48.980 --> 37:51.980
The rah-rah stuff, right?

37:52.420 --> 38:00.140
But the emphasis of Peter, right? The rock of the church, like he's the main character here, you know, aside from the Holy Ghost.

38:01.740 --> 38:03.600
His emphasis is preaching.

38:03.900 --> 38:08.620
And it's hard preaching. I mean he's telling people that they're evil and they need to repent and get baptized

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Um, he's saying like you kill jesus

38:12.300 --> 38:13.260
like

38:13.260 --> 38:14.700
Get it together

38:14.700 --> 38:15.900
like

38:15.900 --> 38:21.260
You know david david believed in christ and preached christ and you need to get saved

38:22.140 --> 38:23.580
and

38:23.580 --> 38:24.500
He says

38:25.000 --> 38:32.040
It says in first Corinthians Paul says in first Corinthians even so ye for as much as your zealous of spiritual gifts

38:32.600 --> 38:36.280
Seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church

38:36.920 --> 38:38.120
so

38:38.120 --> 38:43.560
um checkmate pentecostals like the main spiritual gift you're supposed to covet is being able to

38:44.040 --> 38:47.240
To preach and edify the body of christ. You're not edifying

38:47.960 --> 38:49.960
anyone in gibberish

38:50.300 --> 38:59.300
You're making Christianity a laughingstock to the world when they can put it on YouTube and just see people acting a fool.

38:59.300 --> 39:12.300
Now, and again, Peter is a Jew ethnically speaking, but he's giving it to the Jews here very straight about how wrong they were to crucify Jesus.

39:12.300 --> 39:14.500
this and some people if you

39:14.700 --> 39:17.200
just quote passages about that the Jews killed Jesus.

39:17.200 --> 39:18.900
They said, well, Jesus was a Jew,

39:18.900 --> 39:20.440
like as if that somehow cancels it out.

39:20.440 --> 39:23.200
It's like, well, okay, Peter and Paul were Jews

39:23.200 --> 39:27.500
and they're the ones writing and preaching these passages.

39:27.500 --> 39:31.200
Like, you know, this is like, this is crazy.

39:31.200 --> 39:34.140
This is like if you like called the police

39:34.140 --> 39:36.380
to report a murder, right?

39:36.380 --> 39:38.580
And you're like, someone killed my brother.

39:38.580 --> 39:42.480
And they're like, well, was the murderer the same ethnicity?

39:43.500 --> 39:46.500
Yeah? Okay, well, you know, it's fine then.

39:48.000 --> 39:50.500
Like, it doesn't make any sense to me.

39:51.500 --> 39:54.500
As like, as somehow that gets them off the hook.

39:56.500 --> 39:57.500
Anyway.

39:58.500 --> 40:09.500
And, and, and, and I feel like this, this event in Pentecost, it's, it's one, one possible fulfillment of Ezekiel 36.

40:10.300 --> 40:15.400
I think Ezekiel 36 is one of those things that could have multiple meanings, but in Ezekiel

40:15.400 --> 40:16.820
36, 24, it says...

40:17.400 --> 40:25.240
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

40:25.240 --> 40:34.200
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you.

40:34.200 --> 40:45.320
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

40:45.400 --> 40:48.760
So you have Jews from all over the world coming to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost

40:49.320 --> 40:55.600
Getting saved if they weren't already saved even if they're already saved they're getting this Holy Spirit

40:56.320 --> 40:58.320
permanently for the first time

40:59.920 --> 41:04.600
And so I think that Ezekiel 36 this is one of the fulfillments

41:06.440 --> 41:08.440
And

41:08.680 --> 41:11.760
Again it says here in Acts 2 they continued steadfastly

41:12.800 --> 41:18.720
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. And so this is

41:19.840 --> 41:25.120
this is a great this is a great chapter. They don't drop the ball right away.

41:27.280 --> 41:34.000
Whereas it remember at the first Pentecost they're like they're in the process of getting the law

41:34.000 --> 41:37.600
and they get impatient and make a golden calf like while they're waiting for the commandments.

41:37.600 --> 41:40.400
like that's totally crazy.

41:40.700 --> 41:46.620
That'd be like the equivalent of like if during the 10 days after Jesus ascended,

41:47.420 --> 41:51.260
like the apostles went back, like all the way back to like idolatry or something.

41:51.820 --> 41:58.300
That would be like insane, right? But like, so the church did a little bit,

41:58.940 --> 42:03.020
had a little bit better track record about staying on track in the short term anyway.

42:03.020 --> 42:06.120
And.

42:06.900 --> 42:16.500
And then we have sort of the communism verses here at the end of Acts 2 that people like to misinterpret.

42:19.500 --> 42:20.100
Let's see.

42:20.700 --> 42:27.140
Yeah, and they, so they continued, said fast in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship, and a breaking of bread and a prayer.

42:27.140 --> 42:31.300
So they're eating meals together, they're praying together, having fellowship, right?

42:31.580 --> 42:32.580
That's the context.

42:32.580 --> 42:34.500
and

42:35.600 --> 42:41.560
All that believed were together. Why were they together because it's the feast of Pentecost. They're all they're all supposed to be together

42:42.260 --> 42:47.960
Okay, that's not saying they formed a commune because you don't hear about it anywhere else in the book of Acts that there's some

42:47.960 --> 42:50.800
Hippie commune in Jerusalem where they're all living together. That's not the point

42:51.800 --> 42:57.080
And had all things in common, right? And again, we cannot like anachronistically

42:57.920 --> 43:00.360
like put Marxism back into

43:01.000 --> 43:06.120
first century Judeo and this is they had all things in common this is not like a literal all

43:06.120 --> 43:10.440
encompassing thing this is this is something that you've experienced too like if you've gone to a

43:10.440 --> 43:16.280
conference and a whole bunch of people all go out to dinner together you know you're sharing

43:16.280 --> 43:23.880
appetizers you know you're picking things off your brother's plate and and and strong

43:23.880 --> 43:27.080
chance that someone's just going to pay for everything if they have the resources right

43:27.500 --> 43:30.540
either a pastor or just someone from one of the congregations right.

43:31.420 --> 43:35.260
That's kind of having all things in common like we all like 50 people went out to eat like

43:35.820 --> 43:39.900
someone just took care of it right. That's kind of what's going on here because it says

43:40.460 --> 43:46.300
you know they sold possessions and goods and parted them among themselves as every man had need. So

43:46.300 --> 43:51.500
these people are coming all the way from Parthia and Crete and whatever right. This is like

43:52.100 --> 43:56.340
they have travel expenses, whatever, they're probably not all rich, they're doing this out

43:56.340 --> 44:01.700
of religious duty to show up to the Pentecost, right? So like you've probably been at conferences

44:01.700 --> 44:06.020
where like you know there's guys that are just getting started out in life and someone puts them

44:06.020 --> 44:14.820
up on the couch or whatever, right? These sorts of things and they it's just breaking bread from

44:14.820 --> 44:17.500
house to house so they're just

44:17.700 --> 44:20.020
They're having fellowship. This is not communism. Okay.

44:21.860 --> 44:26.500
So they're going from house to house, not from, you know, all in the same commune. Like,

44:26.500 --> 44:34.500
these people still own their homes, okay? We can presume. There are people in the New Testament

44:34.500 --> 44:39.060
that sold their homes just to give a big lump sum donation to the church, and two of those people

44:39.060 --> 44:43.460
lied about it and got killed by God for lying about it.

44:44.200 --> 44:49.000
lying about it. So it's not to say that didn't happen, but it's also not, it's not,

44:49.000 --> 44:54.400
wasn't a universal thing that they all did. It's not a command to do that. God

44:54.400 --> 45:01.400
commands the tithe. And anyway, so Pentecost is, it's this impetus to work

45:01.400 --> 45:08.200
and to praise, which are our free will sacrifices in the New Testament.

45:08.400 --> 45:12.960
because if you go back to Deuteronomy 16, I kind of got ahead of myself there with that.

45:12.960 --> 45:19.440
If you go back to Deuteronomy 16, we're talking about how to celebrate this Feast of Weeks.

45:20.640 --> 45:26.960
Deuteronomy 16 10, it says, and thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks, that's another

45:27.520 --> 45:31.760
name for the Feast of Pentecost, unto the Lord thy God with a tribute.

45:32.300 --> 45:38.860
of a free will offering of thy hand which thou shalt give unto the lord thy god according as the

45:38.860 --> 45:45.180
lord thy god hath blessed thee." So at the Old Testament Feast of Weeks at the Old Testament

45:45.180 --> 45:50.940
Pentecost you gave a free will offering basically the honor system it says as the lord thy god

45:50.940 --> 45:55.580
hath blessed thee. It doesn't give a percent, it doesn't give a number, it's just a free will

45:55.580 --> 45:57.820
offering. Hey if you had a good year

45:58.700 --> 46:03.820
give something good out of your own heart at this feast of weeks, right? And so,

46:05.020 --> 46:09.820
New Testament Pentecost comes, we have the Holy Ghost, and so our free will sacrifices in the

46:09.820 --> 46:14.940
New Testament are doing the works of God and praising God with their lips and these sorts of things.

46:17.580 --> 46:21.180
It's implied in the miracle that God did this miracle so that the apostles

46:21.980 --> 46:24.700
and the other believers could get more work done faster.

46:25.300 --> 46:32.300
And because of this miracle should be cause for praise and worship just in and of itself.

46:32.300 --> 46:41.300
And Paul is still thinking about Pentecost and the book of Corinthians.

46:41.300 --> 46:45.300
Epistle to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 16, 8.

46:45.500 --> 46:51.420
says, but I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and a

46:51.420 --> 46:55.900
factual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. Now if

46:55.900 --> 46:59.820
Timotheus come, see that he may be with you without fear,

46:59.820 --> 47:08.220
for he worketh the work of the Lord as I also do. So two things here

47:08.220 --> 47:12.700
in the epistle to the Corinthians, Pentecost is still being observed.

47:13.100 --> 47:17.820
partly because he's probably still trying to reach some of the Jews who might still be celebrating

47:17.820 --> 47:22.940
the Old Testament version, but obviously he's aware of the New Testament one. I think that's what he's

47:23.740 --> 47:30.460
referring to because he's in Ephesus until Pentecost. So you know this is a gentile

47:30.460 --> 47:32.460
church that he's going to celebrate Pentecost with.

47:34.800 --> 47:41.400
But also note that in this passage, Paul directly transitions from that to work and evangelism.

47:41.400 --> 47:48.600
I think there's a direct connection between God giving us the power to do the works at Pentecost,

47:48.600 --> 47:52.400
and the fact that we should go do them.

47:52.400 --> 47:57.400
Gabe, could I get some water? Thank you.

47:57.400 --> 48:01.400
So, in 2 Chronicles 8,

48:01.800 --> 48:08.200
Solomon commands the observance of the feast of weeks or the feast of Pentecost and

48:09.400 --> 48:14.840
And so and it says that through this and the other good works the house of the Lord was perfected

48:15.040 --> 48:21.340
So obviously they were commanded to celebrate this feast among others and by doing that

48:21.760 --> 48:25.720
And doing other good things. This is the house of the Lord was perfected in

48:26.440 --> 48:28.440
2nd Chronicles 8 12

48:29.600 --> 48:35.560
You don't have to turn there, but it is a longer passage if you want to read it.

48:35.560 --> 48:36.560
Second Chronicles 8-12.

48:36.560 --> 48:41.760
Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he

48:41.760 --> 48:43.040
had built before the porch.

48:45.900 --> 48:52.700
Verse 13, even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses on the Sabbaths,

48:53.180 --> 48:55.340
and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts,

48:55.900 --> 49:02.540
three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.

49:02.540 --> 49:05.740
So those are the big, those are the big three, okay?

49:06.620 --> 49:09.100
And the feast of unleavened bread

49:10.300 --> 49:12.300
is also the Passover.

49:13.100 --> 49:19.940
And that's sort of like the death burial and resurrection, the Feast of Weeks.

49:19.940 --> 49:22.660
This is kind of like prefiguring the New Testament pentagonists.

49:22.660 --> 49:26.940
The Feast of Tabernacles, this is like where they go dwell in booths and tents.

49:26.940 --> 49:31.700
This is kind of prefiguring we're going to go get new bodies and a new home and mansions

49:31.700 --> 49:34.260
and be in heaven and all this stuff, right?

49:34.260 --> 49:35.260
So those are the big three.

49:35.260 --> 49:38.820
And it mirrors three major elements in salvation.

49:40.700 --> 49:43.740
Okay, second Chronicles 814 the passage continues

49:44.460 --> 49:50.580
And he appointed according to the order of David his father the courses of the priests to their service and

49:50.900 --> 49:57.060
The Levites to their charges to praise and minister before the priests as the duty of every day required

49:57.180 --> 49:59.860
The porters also by their courses at every gate

50:00.700 --> 50:05.140
So there's your ushers for so had David the man of God commanded

50:05.700 --> 50:13.340
And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures.

50:13.340 --> 50:23.620
Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the Lord, until it was finished, so the house of the Lord was perfected, or complete."

50:23.620 --> 50:30.980
And part of that completion was that they're observing Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks.

50:30.980 --> 50:32.300
All right.

50:33.200 --> 50:38.480
Now just as a practical matter, this is kind of a rabbit run here, but you know,

50:39.200 --> 50:46.560
this whole thing about the language, like this is God temporarily solving the problem or solving

50:46.560 --> 50:48.000
the curse of Babel.

50:48.300 --> 50:59.500
Right all the way back in the Old Testament he confounded the languages and then in order to bring about like the grace and truth of the gospel he temporarily lifts this in order to jumpstart the New Testament church.

50:59.500 --> 51:06.940
Very cool, very cool miracle in that regard right because this is kind of like a big thing that separates people internationally as language.

51:06.940 --> 51:10.940
You can have, you know, unlimited

51:11.400 --> 51:15.400
point one second internet connection to someone in India, but if they speak

51:15.400 --> 51:21.560
Hindi and you speak English, your communication is still pretty limited.

51:21.560 --> 51:25.600
So I mean I realized with AI and Translate now it's getting a little...

51:25.600 --> 51:31.160
we have a lot of interesting technology at our disposal now that they

51:31.160 --> 51:36.360
didn't have, but one of the parallels I thought of though is when

51:36.360 --> 51:38.200
our country, our kingdom

51:38.400 --> 51:44.900
our carnal physical kingdom if you will, tries to influence and collect information from other nations.

51:44.900 --> 51:50.400
One of the hardest things in human intelligence from the American perspective

51:50.400 --> 51:56.400
is having competent, motivated, loyal people who are totally fluent in a language

51:57.000 --> 52:02.520
other than English or Spanish. okay? and i realize we have a few French people in like Arcadia and

52:02.520 --> 52:07.880
the Bayou and stuff but like those are dialects. they would stand out in like West Africa or

52:07.880 --> 52:17.080
something. so many people, they might learn some French or Italian or German to be cultured or

52:17.080 --> 52:24.120
for travel or whatever. you know when some businessmen might learn some Japanese or Chinese to be polite.

52:25.100 --> 52:32.460
But the number of guys that are born in America and look like me, who are 100% native fluent in Kurdish...

52:32.800 --> 52:41.840
or Javanese or Korean or Bulgarian or Serbian or Armenian or Farsi or even Russian for that matter,

52:43.120 --> 52:48.720
it's very small. And the number of these people who have not only native fluency,

52:49.280 --> 52:55.920
but the ability to culturally blend in in those places and gain the trust of powerful or critical

52:55.920 --> 52:57.900
individuals is even smaller.

52:58.000 --> 53:05.360
And so America's always had a problem with like being able to do old school sneaky spying.

53:05.360 --> 53:09.600
We pretty much rely on turning people from those countries that...

53:09.800 --> 53:15.080
don't like the regime they're under or paying them or you know saying hey you

53:15.080 --> 53:19.880
can come live here if you tell us some secrets or whatever right like or actual

53:19.880 --> 53:25.680
like cloak and dagger abilities are are not so great compared to some countries

53:25.680 --> 53:28.680
so

53:29.900 --> 53:34.460
you can be totally conversational in language and still be quite obviously foreign is what I'm

53:34.460 --> 53:39.100
saying. And you can be totally fluent and still have tons of cultural, you can be totally fluent

53:39.100 --> 53:44.620
though even but still have cultural tells right that you're foreign. And so America always has

53:44.620 --> 53:50.220
an asymmetrical handicap in this area because we're such an open and welcoming society and so

53:50.220 --> 53:54.940
when someone has an accent or they just have different mannerisms or manners it doesn't

53:54.940 --> 53:57.900
necessarily set off alarm bells in the same way it was.

53:57.900 --> 54:03.060
in like red China or the Soviet Union, right? You just, even though you're

54:03.060 --> 54:09.620
different, you still stand out relatively less compared to some countries. We also

54:09.620 --> 54:13.780
bring in hundreds of thousands of foreign students and so our adversaries

54:13.780 --> 54:16.660
are always well supplied with people who have experience in our culture and how

54:16.660 --> 54:21.540
things work here. But to bring it back from this parallelism to the Christian

54:21.540 --> 54:22.600
perspective

54:23.100 --> 54:26.460
The language barrier is always one of the struggles of missionary efforts.

54:28.860 --> 54:33.340
It's less important to completely blend in culturally as a missionary compared to

54:33.340 --> 54:37.900
intelligence work, but the language barrier alone is a tough one when trying to discuss

54:38.780 --> 54:43.580
theological concepts or nuances of law and morality rather than, you know,

54:43.580 --> 54:47.420
hey, what's for dinner? How are you doing? Things like this.

54:49.100 --> 54:53.740
And those of us who spend any time in the traditional IFB movement, we all saw people

54:53.740 --> 54:59.740
struggle to learn the language and customs of some obscure nation for years and go on

54:59.740 --> 55:05.340
deputation and finally go there and maybe start a church with like four people in it.

55:05.340 --> 55:12.220
And it was just, it was really sad sometimes. And, you know, a lot of times, you know,

55:12.220 --> 55:15.660
the people that they'd gather under the wings had already been saved.

55:16.100 --> 55:22.900
by somebody else and you know a lot of times they have the most noble intentions and it's true that

55:23.940 --> 55:28.740
sometimes the work we're called to seems small but it's still important to God little as much

55:28.740 --> 55:33.380
when God is in it right but we all probably thought in the back of our minds there has

55:33.380 --> 55:38.340
to be some superior way to organize these efforts right and so

55:38.900 --> 55:45.300
Our efforts are usually not as good as what the Holy Ghost did here.

55:45.300 --> 55:52.660
The Holy Ghost entirely shortcut this process by preaching to people who were 100% native

55:52.660 --> 55:58.820
speakers and then sending them to those places filled with the Spirit themselves and equipped

55:58.820 --> 56:02.140
to spread the Gospel organically from the ground up in their own culture.

56:02.600 --> 56:06.600
without any additional steps of language and culture training.

56:08.120 --> 56:14.920
And on top of that, because a lot of them, or most of them, almost all of them, were either Jews or converts to Judaism,

56:14.920 --> 56:17.080
that's why they were in Jerusalem that day in the first place,

56:18.680 --> 56:24.680
they were already separated to a degree from the bad elements of their respective cultures.

56:24.680 --> 56:28.360
They were in those cultures and knew those cultures already, but they were already kind of...

56:29.300 --> 56:33.380
separated from the pagan elements of it because they were already Jewish.

56:34.020 --> 56:41.700
Um, and so these first churches, um, in the, in these areas might not have been,

56:41.780 --> 56:47.540
uh, dragged down quite so fast as say like the Roman, the Roman church where

56:47.540 --> 56:51.180
like all that paganism got, got mixed in pretty quick, right?

56:51.180 --> 56:52.540
Thank you.

56:52.900 --> 56:56.980
because it was more of a gentile church that was bringing in a lot of former pagans.

56:59.940 --> 57:03.300
Right with the ancestor veneration becomes the saint veneration, things like this.

57:03.940 --> 57:11.460
You know, we've all read about things from the old Roman religion that got brought into Roman Catholicism.

57:15.400 --> 57:20.400
So God's very wise he kind of like he used people that were already a bit separated

57:20.640 --> 57:27.160
That already spoke all these different languages were already integrated culturally and had them go back to their places

57:28.600 --> 57:30.600
Like the ultimate

57:30.960 --> 57:32.960
Mission sending conference

57:33.800 --> 57:35.480
and

57:35.480 --> 57:38.100
and again, I'll touch back on the

57:38.800 --> 57:42.800
the parallel between Israel falling to idolatry in the Christian church.

57:42.800 --> 57:47.800
So like, Pentecost is commemorating Moses getting the law.

57:47.800 --> 57:55.800
And of course, we remember that there's only 10 commandments and they are immediately breaking

57:55.800 --> 57:59.800
like the second commandment, like before they even have the written copy.

57:59.800 --> 58:01.800
It's just, it's like, it's so crazy, right?

58:01.800 --> 58:04.800
But it's such a powerful commentary on how corrupt...

58:05.600 --> 58:11.040
and how stupid we are how bad human nature is you know even Aaron's falling into this like

58:12.240 --> 58:15.760
Aaron like I mean this is this guy's gonna be the high priest and he's doing this

58:16.320 --> 58:23.280
it's like you just um you just facepalm I think when you read this but God still loved him anyway

58:24.800 --> 58:26.960
all right he still loved his people

58:27.400 --> 58:33.240
and it's a very grievous sin and it's one we shouldn't shy from calling out like when we see

58:33.240 --> 58:39.160
it today in the Roman Catholic Church because you had the first Pentecost and then just like

58:39.160 --> 58:44.840
immediately they're doing golden statues. You have the New Testament Pentecost and it does take a

58:44.840 --> 58:50.280
little while, I don't know how long, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, 300 years, for the Catholics

58:50.280 --> 58:53.900
have just buildings full of statues and it's just like...

58:54.000 --> 58:56.600
How can you possibly get that from reading the Bible?

58:56.600 --> 59:01.000
Like, how can you read the Bible and come away thinking you should make a statue of anything?

59:01.000 --> 59:07.000
Like, if anything, like, you'd err on the side of caution and not even have, like, a garden gnome.

59:07.000 --> 59:14.000
Right? I mean, like, you don't want to be, like, overly puritanical, you know, and be like,

59:14.000 --> 59:19.120
all of a sudden you can't have an army man figurine because it's an idol.

59:19.120 --> 59:19.920
It's a graven image.

59:21.300 --> 59:26.300
But, I mean, after a certain point, you know, there starts being a gray area, right?

59:26.300 --> 59:32.300
Like, we don't have like a brass statue of Pastor Thompson in the lobby, you know?

59:32.300 --> 59:35.300
It'd be a little odd.

59:35.300 --> 59:42.300
But, and so, you have the plagues that God does, you have the crossing of the Red Sea,

59:42.300 --> 59:46.300
you have the miracle of the manna, God's smoking on the mountain in front of all of them.

59:47.700 --> 59:52.740
and yet their flesh still reverted to idolatry like the second they had a minute of freedom

59:52.740 --> 59:59.220
without the leader around and there's kind of a parallel right you have the miracles of christ

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:03.760
the miracle of Pentecost, all the miracles the apostles are doing.

01:00:04.260 --> 01:00:08.880
And yet people still reverted to the weak and beggarly elements,

01:00:09.380 --> 01:00:13.880
to praying to painted statues and wooden statues and pieces of cement

01:00:13.880 --> 01:00:15.880
and plastic merry garden statues.

01:00:15.880 --> 01:00:18.060
And it's just, it's crazy, right?

01:00:18.720 --> 01:00:21.100
And, but it's, it's not unprecedented.

01:00:21.100 --> 01:00:26.560
It's, it's what even some saved Jews fell into.

01:00:27.600 --> 01:00:30.400
in the covenant where they didn't have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

01:00:31.120 --> 01:00:37.760
Today we have the permanent presence of the Holy Ghost in us. If someone is falling into like gross

01:00:37.760 --> 01:00:44.560
idolatry, I think it'd be fair to question their salvation. Way more so than, you know, obviously

01:00:44.560 --> 01:00:51.040
Aaron was saved, but it's a little bit of a different situation. They didn't have the Bible,

01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:54.560
for one thing. They also didn't have

01:00:55.900 --> 01:00:57.900
the Holy Ghost permanently indwelling them.

01:01:00.140 --> 01:01:02.140
Now in Acts 17,

01:01:02.940 --> 01:01:04.940
almost done here, in Acts 17,

01:01:05.660 --> 01:01:07.660
Paul is preaching to the Athenians,

01:01:09.020 --> 01:01:09.980
and

01:01:09.980 --> 01:01:11.980
you know the passage probably, it says,

01:01:12.700 --> 01:01:15.180
For as much then as we are the offspring of God,

01:01:15.600 --> 01:01:23.360
We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and man's device,

01:01:23.360 --> 01:01:30.000
and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent."

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:36.240
So you can't say, well Catholicism is just my culture, we just have these statues because of the culture.

01:01:36.240 --> 01:01:42.400
So he commanded all men everywhere to repent. He's done winking at that sort of thing.

01:01:43.400 --> 01:01:49.480
giving the heathen a pass on it just because that you know obviously the gospel had less people

01:01:49.480 --> 01:01:53.800
going around the world preaching it in the old testament god was a little bit more understanding

01:01:53.800 --> 01:02:00.360
of some of these heathen nations but it's just you know playtime's over basically is what he's saying

01:02:02.800 --> 01:02:10.320
And there's a prefigurement of Pentecost, I think, at the baptism of Christ.

01:02:10.320 --> 01:02:16.160
Because you have the Holy Spirit descending like a dove above Christ.

01:02:16.160 --> 01:02:19.600
And he also suffered before the church would suffer.

01:02:19.600 --> 01:02:24.120
He rose again before the general, before the first and second resurrections.

01:02:24.120 --> 01:02:25.600
He's the first fruits.

01:02:25.600 --> 01:02:28.600
He got a glorified body before everybody else.

01:02:28.600 --> 01:02:30.480
In all things he has the preeminence.

01:02:31.200 --> 01:02:37.380
And so, I think that the Holy Ghost coming down on Christ, this was a prefigurement of

01:02:37.380 --> 01:02:41.840
the Holy Ghost coming down on the entire church there.

01:02:41.840 --> 01:02:47.260
It's one of the things you're represented, right?

01:02:47.260 --> 01:02:52.980
So Pentecost is first and foremost about the empowerment of God's people to preach Christ.

01:02:53.300 --> 01:03:00.060
Hear Christ preached and thus maximize the number of people who go on to be with Christ and to be like Christ

01:03:00.420 --> 01:03:07.380
Because he's he's he's he's getting the Holy Ghost descending on him first. He is suffering first

01:03:07.380 --> 01:03:12.580
He's rising again first. He's getting glorified by first. He's leading the way right? It's captain of our salvation

01:03:12.580 --> 01:03:16.840
And so we want other people to follow in those those steps

01:03:19.540 --> 01:03:21.100
It is there

01:03:21.200 --> 01:03:29.300
It's therefore also a day, Pentecost is also a day of hope and joyful anticipation, right?

01:03:29.300 --> 01:03:34.840
That Holy Ghost, it says it's the earnest of our inheritance, right?

01:03:34.840 --> 01:03:38.480
And so like we don't have the new man yet, we're not sinless yet, but we have the Holy

01:03:38.480 --> 01:03:43.700
Ghost and it's witnessing to us at least what's the right thing to do.

01:03:43.700 --> 01:03:46.380
So it's not our full inheritance yet.

01:03:46.380 --> 01:03:48.540
But you can imagine, like a young man...

01:03:49.200 --> 01:03:52.560
like receiving the earnest of his inheritance, right?

01:03:54.880 --> 01:03:57.440
Assuming he's of good character, he's not just going to blow it, right?

01:03:58.240 --> 01:04:01.840
He can't fully enjoy the whole inheritance yet, but getting that earnest, you know,

01:04:01.840 --> 01:04:08.080
gives him some confidence to move forward in his endeavors and be glad and hopeful for his future,

01:04:08.080 --> 01:04:12.800
right? If he's got the right mindset, right? If he's not just a prodigal son, right?

01:04:13.800 --> 01:04:17.640
Just getting, getting, getting, you know, if you've got a $10,000 inheritance company

01:04:17.640 --> 01:04:20.600
and get a thousand, like you're still going to be happy.

01:04:20.600 --> 01:04:26.520
You're going to be more confident about your situation, right?

01:04:26.520 --> 01:04:29.000
And so what about the Pentecostals?

01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:30.560
I think I already touched on this.

01:04:30.560 --> 01:04:34.840
I feel like you have to touch on it in a Pentecost sermon.

01:04:34.840 --> 01:04:38.200
There's a sect who take their name from the events and acts too.

01:04:38.200 --> 01:04:40.800
And it's really a stain on the name of Christ.

01:04:40.800 --> 01:04:41.300
down.

01:04:41.900 --> 01:04:51.300
We do not let people who think the miracle Pentecost was talking in gibberish, we don't let them take this holiday from us,

01:04:51.300 --> 01:04:57.260
you know, any more than the fact that Mormons celebrate Easter is going to discourage me from celebrating Easter.

01:04:57.260 --> 01:05:02.020
Okay? Catholics celebrate Christmas, they celebrate Easter, they celebrate Pentecost.

01:05:02.020 --> 01:05:07.300
I'm going to celebrate all those things. It's not a binary thing, right? Like, they're just...

01:05:07.800 --> 01:05:11.800
They're not doing it in the spirit of truth though.

01:05:17.100 --> 01:05:22.140
And in some cases, you know, as long as they're not saying anything like wildly heretical,

01:05:22.140 --> 01:05:25.580
they're sometimes laying a foundation for us to build upon. Because a lot of times,

01:05:26.940 --> 01:05:32.220
like a very generic Catholic holiday service, saying positive things about Jesus,

01:05:32.220 --> 01:05:38.060
saying positive things about God, we come along later, actually fill them in on the whole truth.

01:05:41.180 --> 01:05:44.060
So, a couple last thoughts on Pentecost.

01:05:44.800 --> 01:05:50.300
The first church, if you think about it, was a very small and persecuted group.

01:05:50.300 --> 01:05:55.800
Like, we can sometimes have a persecution complex in the New F.B. because we're small,

01:05:55.800 --> 01:06:00.300
but like there's literally millions of Baptists just in America, right?

01:06:00.300 --> 01:06:04.300
Like we feel pretty comfortable coming to church, going to church, whatever.

01:06:04.300 --> 01:06:07.300
Been a couple times where it was a little uncomfortable, but...

01:06:07.300 --> 01:06:12.800
But imagine the New Testament church where there's one congregation.

01:06:12.900 --> 01:06:17.220
You'd feel a little bit more isolated, a little bit more vulnerable, right?

01:06:17.220 --> 01:06:22.180
And you're in a country that's already under foreign occupation by pagan Romans.

01:06:22.180 --> 01:06:25.980
And then on top of that, locally, you've got all these Pharisees, Jewish Pharisees on your

01:06:25.980 --> 01:06:28.740
back.

01:06:28.740 --> 01:06:34.260
It's a scary and uphill time to be a Christian, so that where even the disciples nearly went

01:06:34.260 --> 01:06:38.100
back to their old lives, just went back to fishing, right?

01:06:38.500 --> 01:06:44.900
And so to see 3000 people saved and baptized in the same day, this was a great reassurance

01:06:45.380 --> 01:06:51.860
of God's promise to build his church. It was a sort of a first fruits of the worldwide evangelism

01:06:51.860 --> 01:06:58.100
that Christianity would go on and thrive all over the world instead of remaining like some local

01:06:58.100 --> 01:07:04.420
fringe movement of ethnic Jews around Jerusalem, right? That situation would have been inherently

01:07:04.420 --> 01:07:05.300
fragile.

01:07:06.100 --> 01:07:10.020
Especially given Christ prophecy that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed anyway

01:07:11.900 --> 01:07:15.480
God has to make sure that this message goes out to everybody else

01:07:19.100 --> 01:07:23.100
And in Mark 4, Jesus said, and he said,

01:07:24.460 --> 01:07:26.700
Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?

01:07:27.260 --> 01:07:29.580
Or with what comparison shall we compare it?

01:07:30.220 --> 01:07:37.100
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth is less than all the seeds that be in the earth.

01:07:37.660 --> 01:07:40.140
And that first church in Jerusalem was probably

01:07:40.780 --> 01:07:42.780
the smallest religion in the world

01:07:43.260 --> 01:07:45.740
at that initial service, right?

01:07:46.500 --> 01:07:51.500
uh, you know, maybe there was a witch doctor in Africa that only had like 20 followers

01:07:51.500 --> 01:07:57.860
but like, in terms of like, serious religions, right, this is, it's like a grain of mustard

01:07:57.860 --> 01:07:59.500
seed sown in the earth.

01:07:59.500 --> 01:08:04.040
It's less than all the seeds to be in the earth, but when it is sown, it groweth up

01:08:04.040 --> 01:08:05.180
and becomeeth greater.

01:08:05.500 --> 01:08:11.340
than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under

01:08:11.340 --> 01:08:12.740
the shadow of it."

01:08:12.740 --> 01:08:19.020
And so the church is spread worldwide, many people are lodged under that shadow, even

01:08:19.020 --> 01:08:21.140
among the churches that don't have the right gospel.

01:08:21.500 --> 01:08:27.020
they've provided a lot of health and human services to just people in general and spread

01:08:27.980 --> 01:08:34.380
goodwill about the name of Jesus in a lot of cases. Sometimes they made people think ill of Jesus

01:08:34.380 --> 01:08:41.820
because of the bad things they've done, but on the whole, a lot of these squishy Protestant

01:08:42.200 --> 01:08:47.440
churches, they're still spending money to you know feed people and give people medical care and stuff like that, right?

01:08:47.440 --> 01:08:52.780
And there's a lot of there's a lot of there's a lot of good that has come out of the New Testament

01:08:55.160 --> 01:08:58.080
First and foremost getting people saved but there's just a lot of

01:08:58.920 --> 01:09:03.680
Benefits that is given to the world like the fact that we don't have polygamous marriage anymore

01:09:04.400 --> 01:09:12.760
The fact that you don't just go out and revenge people like, you know, ancient German pagans or something and just we're just like

01:09:13.160 --> 01:09:15.660
Having a honor blood feuds and stuff

01:09:16.200 --> 01:09:18.200
like the law

01:09:19.360 --> 01:09:21.360
It's been a great benefit

01:09:21.400 --> 01:09:25.580
Gotten so many benefits from it culturally beyond spiritual salvation

01:09:26.100 --> 01:09:28.100
All from this one little nucleus

01:09:29.140 --> 01:09:30.500
in the Near East

01:09:31.600 --> 01:09:42.100
And so I saved the history lesson for the end so that you know the people that are asleep can remain so.

01:09:42.100 --> 01:09:45.400
But at least I didn't lose you in the beginning, okay?

01:09:45.400 --> 01:09:52.600
So just to go recap where this pentagon of some Feast of Weeks come from Deuteronomy 16.

01:09:52.600 --> 01:09:56.400
Seven weeks, shalt thou number unto thee.

01:09:56.600 --> 01:10:01.460
Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as they'll begin us to put the sickle to the corn

01:10:01.460 --> 01:10:09.280
So it's like, you know, Monty Python's holy hand grenade count out of three neither count though for do not count two unless they'll then proceed us to three

01:10:09.800 --> 01:10:11.800
Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee.

01:10:12.220 --> 01:10:17.080
Begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle in the corn,

01:10:17.340 --> 01:10:22.740
and thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute, a free will offering of thy hand,

01:10:23.180 --> 01:10:26.760
and thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee.

01:10:27.800 --> 01:10:34.220
And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou and thy son and thy daughter and thy manservant and thy maidservant

01:10:34.220 --> 01:10:39.940
So it's for everybody and the Levi that is within my gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow

01:10:40.220 --> 01:10:45.020
That are among you in the place which the Lord the God hath chosen to place his name there

01:10:45.020 --> 01:10:47.420
So there's some things in the ancient

01:10:47.940 --> 01:10:53.320
Or in the open Old Testament. That's more exclusive like only certain people can go into the

01:10:54.140 --> 01:10:55.800
Tabernacle and things like this

01:10:56.100 --> 01:11:02.900
Feast of weeks, feast of Pentecost, it's saying like, get everybody, the servants, the Levites,

01:11:02.900 --> 01:11:09.380
the strangers, the orphans, the widows, you know, this is what, and so this kind of prefigures,

01:11:09.380 --> 01:11:17.060
right, the New Testament in that sense. It says, and thou shalt remember that thou was a bondman

01:11:17.060 --> 01:11:20.500
in Egypt, and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. And so.

01:11:21.400 --> 01:11:26.560
Egypt of course, you know remember that you were in the world and you know now you've been saved from it

01:11:30.200 --> 01:11:35.160
So again you have the Passover, then you start counting weeks. Seven weeks plus one day,

01:11:35.800 --> 01:11:43.080
it's 49 days plus one that's 50. Pentecost just means 50th day in Greek or whatever.

01:11:45.880 --> 01:11:50.200
You know, I think just leaving it kind of untranslated like that kind of makes sense

01:11:50.200 --> 01:11:54.520
because just saying 50th day doesn't have the same ring to it.

01:11:58.000 --> 01:12:00.000
Makes it clear what we're talking about.

01:12:00.880 --> 01:12:02.880
Okay, and in Mark 4,

01:12:03.120 --> 01:12:05.120
11 he said,

01:12:05.520 --> 01:12:07.040
Jesus speaking again,

01:12:07.040 --> 01:12:10.400
And he said unto them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God,

01:12:10.960 --> 01:12:16.560
but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive,

01:12:17.120 --> 01:12:20.240
and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time

01:12:20.880 --> 01:12:23.840
they should be converted and their sin should be forgiven them.

01:12:24.400 --> 01:12:29.680
And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables?

01:12:30.880 --> 01:12:39.440
Verse 14, The sower soweth the word. And again what is this festival?

01:12:40.200 --> 01:12:45.980
A, okay, 50 days from the giving of the law, slash 50 days from the resurrection, but it's

01:12:45.980 --> 01:12:48.180
also a harvest time festival.

01:12:48.180 --> 01:12:50.500
It's when you start harvesting the wheat.

01:12:50.500 --> 01:12:51.500
Okay?

01:12:51.500 --> 01:12:53.640
And so, the sower soweth the word.

01:12:53.640 --> 01:12:58.980
This phrase, or rather the phrase, the seed is the word of God.

01:12:58.980 --> 01:13:04.060
This is kind of the crux of the agricultural symbolism, I think, in the Bible.

01:13:04.060 --> 01:13:06.380
to understand that the seed is the word of God.

01:13:06.600 --> 01:13:11.800
The sower soweth the word, it grows up in people and then it's harvested, right?

01:13:11.800 --> 01:13:17.460
This place is Christ at the center of all the symbolism because He is the Word of God.

01:13:17.460 --> 01:13:23.040
So He's the seed, He's the Word of God, everything grows forth out of Him before it's harvested,

01:13:23.040 --> 01:13:23.540
right?

01:13:23.700 --> 01:13:25.860
You know, we sing a song, it says,

01:13:25.860 --> 01:13:28.260
as lives the flower within the seed,

01:13:28.260 --> 01:13:30.180
as in the cone the tree,

01:13:30.180 --> 01:13:31.780
so praise the God of truth and grace,

01:13:31.780 --> 01:13:33.220
his spirit dwelleth in me.

01:13:33.220 --> 01:13:34.420
All things were made by him,

01:13:34.420 --> 01:13:36.020
all things proceed from him,

01:13:36.020 --> 01:13:37.060
such forth and so on.

01:13:37.060 --> 01:13:39.060
So all these harvest festivals,

01:13:39.060 --> 01:13:41.220
all the different agricultural symbols in the Bible,

01:13:41.220 --> 01:13:44.180
I think the core of it is that Christ is the seed,

01:13:44.740 --> 01:13:46.180
it's called the seed of Abraham,

01:13:46.820 --> 01:13:48.900
it's called, by different things,

01:13:48.900 --> 01:13:50.020
it's called the word of God.

01:13:51.500 --> 01:13:56.500
And so, if you skip down to verse 26,

01:13:58.140 --> 01:14:00.680
and he said, so is the kingdom of God,

01:14:00.680 --> 01:14:04.140
as if a man should cast seed into the ground,

01:14:04.140 --> 01:14:06.220
and should sleep and rise night and day,

01:14:06.220 --> 01:14:09.480
and the seed should spring and grow up,

01:14:09.480 --> 01:14:10.780
he knoweth not how.

01:14:11.940 --> 01:14:14.640
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself,

01:14:14.640 --> 01:14:16.660
first the blade, then the ear,

01:14:16.660 --> 01:14:18.980
after that the full corn in the ear.

01:14:19.400 --> 01:14:26.360
But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he put it in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

01:14:27.160 --> 01:14:33.240
And so again, then that's going to be, this is the last thing before

01:14:34.840 --> 01:14:41.240
you get the final harvest, the angels come and all that. And you know, Peter addresses this,

01:14:42.280 --> 01:14:45.800
you know, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the great notable

01:14:45.800 --> 01:14:47.000
day of the Lord.

01:14:47.400 --> 01:14:51.440
all that and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

01:14:53.280 --> 01:14:54.960
All right one last

01:14:54.960 --> 01:14:59.760
one last historical reference here just so we know, Old Testament reference so we know

01:15:00.680 --> 01:15:02.560
100%

01:15:02.560 --> 01:15:04.560
You're gonna know the Feast of Weeks in Pentecost

01:15:05.560 --> 01:15:07.560
100% right so

01:15:07.560 --> 01:15:11.520
Leviticus 23 15 Leviticus 23 15. This is what describes

01:15:13.320 --> 01:15:15.100
This feast

01:15:15.400 --> 01:15:17.960
And I back loaded this so you didn't fall asleep in the beginning.

01:15:20.900 --> 01:15:27.620
So, the Vedicus 23, 15, this chapter explains the feasts of the Lord.

01:15:28.620 --> 01:15:34.900
And, uh, your Bible might not have this, but mine has like the little section heading Pentecost.

01:15:35.940 --> 01:15:46.540
Um, verse 15, and you should count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete.

01:15:47.100 --> 01:15:51.980
even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath ye shall number fifty days and

01:15:51.980 --> 01:15:55.980
ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the lord ye shall bring out of your

01:15:55.980 --> 01:16:02.220
habitations two wave loafs of two tenths deals they shall be a fine flour they

01:16:02.220 --> 01:16:07.260
shall be bacon with leaven they are the first fruits unto the lord so i think

01:16:07.260 --> 01:16:08.700
it's interesting that

01:16:09.700 --> 01:16:21.060
Passover you have the unleavened bread that like symbolizes like affliction but then in the harvest festival you're baking with leaven this symbolizes you know like growth the spreading of things right um

01:16:22.100 --> 01:16:31.300
in verse 18 and you shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year and one young bullock and two rams they shall be for a burnt offering unto the lord

01:16:31.940 --> 01:16:35.860
with their meat offering and the drink offerings even an offering made by

01:16:36.500 --> 01:16:42.040
fire of sweet savor unto the Lord. Then he shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a

01:16:42.040 --> 01:16:48.800
sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for sacrifice of peace offerings. And the

01:16:48.800 --> 01:16:52.880
priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the

01:16:52.880 --> 01:17:00.080
Lord with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest, and he shall proclaim

01:17:00.080 --> 01:17:01.240
on the self same day.

01:17:01.800 --> 01:17:06.200
that it may be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall do no servile work therein,

01:17:06.200 --> 01:17:10.840
and shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout all your generations."

01:17:10.840 --> 01:17:15.720
So that's why they're still celebrating it in Acts 2, because it's a command that it's

01:17:15.720 --> 01:17:21.000
throughout all the generations, at least as long as this book of the law is in force, right?

01:17:21.000 --> 01:17:25.500
And when you reap the harvest of your land...

01:17:25.600 --> 01:17:29.520
Thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest,

01:17:30.080 --> 01:17:35.440
neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave them unto the poor

01:17:35.440 --> 01:17:41.120
and the stranger. I am the Lord your God." So then you have this hat tip to the the stranger again,

01:17:42.480 --> 01:17:50.480
part of the prefigurement of all these people from other countries getting saved and taking care of

01:17:50.480 --> 01:17:51.680
at Pentecostal.

01:17:52.500 --> 01:17:57.980
Okay, so now you've seen Deuteronomy and Leviticus where this comes from and

01:17:59.060 --> 01:18:02.180
it's it's incredible that you have

01:18:03.700 --> 01:18:07.140
You know the Christ showing himself for 40 days

01:18:07.740 --> 01:18:09.740
He ascends ten days later

01:18:09.980 --> 01:18:14.140
Right on schedule. They get the Holy Ghost just on timing with the feast

01:18:15.300 --> 01:18:18.220
There's just this perfect continuity between

01:18:19.200 --> 01:18:25.200
you know exodus leviticus deuteronomy axe i mean like the whole bible ties together that's very

01:18:25.200 --> 01:18:30.640
cool um so what comes after the harvest i already mentioned that the feast of tabernacles

01:18:31.680 --> 01:18:38.000
kind of represents i think the resurrection the new body we're going to go dwell in the safety of

01:18:38.000 --> 01:18:45.680
a new tabernacle new mansion god's heaven generally speaking would be like a place of safety

01:18:46.400 --> 01:18:53.540
And so a Pentecost is part of this long thread of agricultural and seasonal symbolism in the Bible

01:18:53.780 --> 01:19:01.940
which makes sense because God designed all those systems of food growing and seasons and the way plants work and the weather works and stuff and

01:19:04.020 --> 01:19:06.020
God's not a god of chaos

01:19:06.300 --> 01:19:13.260
The sometimes temporary disorder in this world do demand sin. God's got a patterns and cycles and order and structure

01:19:13.900 --> 01:19:18.940
you know, because that's the only way like a complicated world and universe can function.

01:19:23.900 --> 01:19:30.060
disproves evolution by the way because like how would you get all this order out of chaos um

01:19:31.820 --> 01:19:38.620
Pentecost demonstrates the mighty power of God but it does so in a comforting and an encouraging

01:19:38.620 --> 01:19:44.380
way right if God came down and blew up a mountain and smoked and rained brimstone on us that would

01:19:44.380 --> 01:19:48.780
definitely demonstrate his power but would necessarily be comforting and encouraging okay

01:19:48.780 --> 01:19:50.700
This is a very...

01:19:51.200 --> 01:19:57.360
comforting and encouraging type of holiday and remembrance of things that happened in Act II.

01:19:58.080 --> 01:20:05.040
And it basically, it shows that, you know, if we're in his service, that all this power he has,

01:20:05.040 --> 01:20:09.440
it's going to be used to back us up and to help us to do the things he's asked to us.

01:20:09.440 --> 01:20:13.680
It's going to give us the boldness to preach like Peter. I mean, Peter was tearing it up

01:20:13.680 --> 01:20:18.480
in Acts 2. He has a lot of good sermons in Acts. Peter was a pretty good preacher.

01:20:19.100 --> 01:20:24.600
I mean he's doing it through the power of the Holy Ghost but I mean God still

01:20:24.600 --> 01:20:29.040
picks these people for a reason I suppose. It's kind of a you know using the

01:20:29.040 --> 01:20:36.120
personality and the Holy Ghost in conjunction. It is a you know and it was

01:20:36.120 --> 01:20:39.040
it was more impressive too because these guys speaking in foreign tongues were

01:20:39.040 --> 01:20:45.100
Galileans and these these were like blue-collar backwards guys.

01:20:45.200 --> 01:20:52.320
This is like if like the salmon fishers from Alaska were all speaking in like some Southeast

01:20:52.320 --> 01:20:56.800
Asian language and like African languages and like you would just be like you didn't go to

01:20:56.800 --> 01:21:05.920
college what's going on here right I mean it would be a miracle right um if just some roughneck salmon

01:21:05.920 --> 01:21:11.520
fishers from Alaska were all doing what they were doing made it more impressive I made Peter's preaching

01:21:12.500 --> 01:21:20.420
more impressive I think. We see that all the time where you just have guys that have no formal

01:21:20.420 --> 01:21:23.540
training and they're better preachers than seminary guys. You see it all the time.

01:21:25.220 --> 01:21:29.700
It's a proof of the Holy Ghost. It's proof of the power of God's Word.

01:21:31.860 --> 01:21:38.260
And so Pentecost, it's the promise that the Holy Ghost, like Christ, will never leave us or forsake us.

01:21:39.500 --> 01:21:46.240
You know, God's here with us literally. He's ready to help us. He's ready to help us do big things like world evangelism

01:21:46.940 --> 01:21:51.740
And we're little things like the at the end of the chapter where they're just breaking bread house to house and just hanging out

01:21:52.460 --> 01:21:54.460
And so, you know next 228

01:21:55.900 --> 01:21:57.820
Next 228 says thou

01:21:57.820 --> 01:22:03.500
Shall make me full of joy with thy countenance. I think that's that's kind of uh the message

01:22:04.100 --> 01:22:10.900
of Pentecost, you know, yes, it's about, hey, get to work and do all this evangelism, but it's a very comforting,

01:22:11.620 --> 01:22:13.620
encouraging type of joyful

01:22:13.700 --> 01:22:20.260
message. So I think it's a great, great holiday in the Rolodex of Christian holidays there. And with that,

01:22:20.260 --> 01:22:23.780
we'll close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for all the,

01:22:25.780 --> 01:22:28.580
everything in your Bible, the feasts and how they teach us things.

01:22:29.200 --> 01:22:34.160
and how we can mine like all this meaning out of your word and it's never going to be exhausted

01:22:34.880 --> 01:22:40.320
and we didn't even scratch the surface and uh lord just bless us for our time here today and

01:22:40.320 --> 01:22:43.600
bless any soul winning this week in Jesus name we pray amen

01:23:00.600 --> 01:23:09.000
Alright now for our closing song, please turn once more in your blue songbooks to number 209, Wonderful Words of Life.