Pentecost is the only holy day that is not a set
date. It is counted from the wave sheaf, and is
always on a Sunday.
The Day of Pentecost is also called the Feast of Weeks and the
Feast of Firstfruits.
What is the new knowledge for this Feast?
Why is this Feast called the Feast of Firstfruits?
Lev 23:15 'And you
shall count for yourselves from the day after the
Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of
the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
Lev 23:16 Count fifty
days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you
shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:17 You shall
bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of
two-tenths of
an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they
shall be baked with leaven. They are
the firstfruits to the LORD.
Lev 23:21 And you
shall proclaim on the same day that it is
a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary
work on it.
It shall be a statute forever in all your
dwellings throughout your generations.
Lev 23:22 'When you
reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly
reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor
shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You
shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I
am the
LORD your God.'
Deu 16:9 "You shall
count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the
seven weeks from the time
you begin to
put the sickle to the grain.
Deu 16:10 Then you
shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God
with the tribute of a freewill offering from your
hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God
blesses you.
Look at how God
instructs us to observe the Feast of Pentecost. We
rejoice and remember that we were in slavery to sin and
God called us out of that slavery.
Deu 16:11 You shall
rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and
your daughter, your male servant and your female
servant, the Levite who is within
your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the
widow who are
among you, at the place where the LORD your God
chooses to make His name abide.
Deu 16:12 And you
shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you
shall be careful to observe these statutes.
This day is one of
the three times that God says the men are to appear
before Him with an offering.
Deu 16:16 "Three times
a year all your males shall appear before the LORD
your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the
Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before
the LORD empty-handed.
Deu 16:17 Every man shall give
as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD
your God which He has given you.
Another example of
the counting of weeks.
Notice Pentecost is
called here the day of the firstfruits.
Num 28:26 'Also on the
day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain
offering to the LORD at your Feast of
Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do
no customary work.
Two loaves of bread
are waved at Pentecost. These loaves picture the
firstfruits.
One pictures Christ who is the bread of life.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus
said to them, "I
am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never
hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never
thirst.
The other loaf
represents the people of God who are the firstfruits.
If it were not for
the elect who are the firstfruits the world would be
destroyed.
Mat 24:22 And unless those days were
shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the
elect's sake those days will be shortened.
Lev 23:16 Count fifty
days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you
shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:17 You shall
bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of
two-tenths of
an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they
shall be baked with leaven. They are
the firstfruits to the LORD.
Christ told the
disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit from
the Father.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He
may abide with you forever
The spirit is also
called the spirit of truth. In other
places in the bible it is called the spirit of power,
and the spirit of promise.
Joh 15:26 "But when the
Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the
Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father, He will testify of Me.
The Holy Spirit
was sent once Christ returned to the Father.
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth.
It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do
not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if
I depart, I will send Him to you.
The Holy Spirit of
Power was given to the disciples on the day of
Pentecost.
They had already received the earnest of the spirit at
baptism.
If we read and
believe the scriptures, the truth becomes plain to
us. It is so obvious by the following scriptures
that the disciples received the earnest of the spirit at
baptism and then at Pentecost they received the Spirit
of Power or Truth.
Act
1:8 But you shall receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in
These scriptures
show that they received the earnest of the Spirit at
baptism.
Act 11:15 And as I
began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as
upon us at the beginning.
Act 11:17 If therefore
God gave them the same gift as He gave us
when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I
that I could withstand God?"
Notice also that
Christ said the disciples would receive another Helper
{or comforter} which means they already had
the earnest of the spirit at that time.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He
will give you another Helper, that He may abide with
you forever
Christ said in the
following verse that they already had the Spirit
dwelling in them.
Joh
14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world
cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows
Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will
be in you.
So did Paul.
Rom 8:23 Not only that, but
we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even
we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Notice the events
of the day of Pentecost.
Act 2:1 When the Day
of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one
accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled the whole house where they were
sitting.
Act 2:3 Then there
appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat
upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.
The disciples were
promised the Holy Spirit of power on the
day Christ was raised from the dead. Which was the
Wavesheaf. This Spirit was given to them
on the day of Pentecost.
Joh 20:22 And when He
had said this, He breathed on them, and
said to them, "Receive
the Holy Spirit.
It is important
that we understand the difference between the earnest of
the Spirit and the Holy Spirit of power.
We are given the earnest of the Spirit at baptism, which
is a small down payment. This is given when we are
called.
After many years of trial and testing, God decides if we
believe the words of eternal life and believe Him and
obey Him. If
we love Him and love the fabulous new knowledge of
eternal life, then we receive the Holy Spirit of power,
when God decides we are capable of having it.
When we receive the Holy Spirit of Power that is when we
are chosen.
Once we have the Holy Spirit of power we have eternal
life inherent, we must continue to the end and prove
faithful stewards, we must continue on being close to
God, believing Him and obeying, growing and learning all
the time.
God does not give the Spirit of Power without a great
deal of testing and trial for us. The stakes are
too high, if we fail we will then have eternal
death. We must be serious about this calling as
eternal life is at stake.
Pentecost
pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit of Power.
This is eternal life inherent.
The Day of
Pentecost is also called the Feast of Firstfruits.
That is because when we receive the Holy Spirit of Power
we are then a firstfruit. We are not a firstfruit
until that time.
On the day of
Pentecost mentioned in Acts 2, Peter was preaching and
told of what would happen in the time before the Day of
the Lord. That is the end time, that is the time
of the Laodicean era of God’s church.
Now notice what
will happen at that time, the Spirit will be poured out
on all flesh and your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Act 2:17 'AND IT
SHALL COME TO PASS IN THE LAST DAYS, SAYS GOD, THAT I
WILL POUR OUT OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH; YOUR SONS AND
YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL
SEE VISIONS, YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS.
The scriptures
states clearly that there will be both males and females
who will prophesy at the end time before the Day of the
Lord.
Act 2:18 AND ON MY
MENSERVANTS AND ON MY MAIDSERVANTS I WILL POUR OUT MY
SPIRIT IN THOSE DAYS; AND THEY SHALL PROPHESY.
There is an
exciting parallel between the 40 days that the spies
searched out the Promised Land, and the 40 days that
Christ appeared to His disciples after He was risen from
the dead.
The Holy Spirit of
power was promised 50 days before it was given.
Joh 20:22 And when He
had said this, He breathed on them, and
said to them, "Receive
the Holy Spirit.
Luk 24:49 Behold, I send the Promise of My
Father upon you; but tarry in the city of
Act 1:4 And being
assembled together with them, He
commanded them not to depart from
Act 2:4 And they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.
When they spoke in
tongues, people from various parts of the land who spoke
with different languages, were all heard in their
own language. Here is an example, so we can understand a
little clearer, an Italian spoke in Italian to a
German and the German heard the words in German.
Act 2:11 Cretans and
Arabs we hear them speaking in our own tongues the
wonderful works of God."
There is a good
reason for the 50 days from the Wave Sheaf to
Pentecost. During this time, the spirit of truth
is with us. This is the time that God
teaches us the knowledge of the truth. We already
have the earnest of the Spirit, and now the Spirit of
truth is with us.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He
will give you another Helper, that He may abide with
you forever
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him
nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with
you and will be in you.
Caleb had the
Spirit with him when he searched the Promised Land.
Num 14:24 But My
servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in
him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the
land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit
it.
There were twelve
men sent into the Promised Land by Moses, one from each
tribe.
Num 13:2 "Send men to
spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the
children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers
you shall send a man, every one a leader among them."
They spent forty
days searching the Promised Land.
Num 13:25 And they
returned from spying out the land after forty days.
Jesus taught about
the Promised Land [
Act 1:3 to whom He
also presented Himself alive after His suffering by
many infallible proofs, being seen by them during
forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to
the
What a beautiful
truth. The men spent forty days in the Promised
Land, searching it out. Christ spent forty days
showing the disciples the parallel of the Promised Land,
the
Ten men brought an
evil report of the Promised Land.
Num 13:27 Then they
told him, and said: "We went to the land where you
sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this
is its
fruit.
Num 13:32 And they
gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land
which they had spied out, saying, "The land through
which we have gone as spies is a land
that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom
we saw in it are
men of great
stature.
Num 13:33 There we saw
the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the
giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own
sight, and so we were in their sight."
Only Joshua and
Caleb wanted the Promised Land.
Num 14:6 But Joshua
the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were
among those who had spied out the land, tore their
clothes;
Num 14:7 and they
spoke to all the congregation of the children of
Israel, saying: "The land we passed through to spy out
is an
exceedingly good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD
delights in us, then He will bring us into this land
and give it to us, 'a land which flows with milk and
honey.'
Num 14:9 Only do not
rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the
land, for they are our bread; their protection has
departed from them, and the LORD is with
us. Do not fear them."
Only Joshua and
Caleb eventually went into the Promised Land.
Num 14:30 Except for
Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun,
you shall by no means enter the land which I swore I
would make you dwell in.
The men who were
fearful died by the plague.
Num 14:37 those very
men who brought the evil report about the land, died
by the plague before the LORD.
The disciples all
wanted the Promised Land [eternal life and the
Act 1:3 to whom He
also presented Himself alive after His suffering by
many infallible proofs, being seen by them during
forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to
the
Act 1:4 And being
assembled together with them, He
commanded them not to depart from
Act 1:5 for John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Spirit not many days from now."
My wife and I have
loved the knowledge of the truth and have pledged our
lives to obeying Christ and God the Father. This
truth is only available from God, and when He decides to
reveal it to us.
2Ti 3:7 always
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth.
Luk 10:22 All things have been delivered to
Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is
except the Father, and who the Father is except the
Son, and the
one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him."
Joh 17:3 And this is eternal
life, that they may know You, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
How beautiful is
the meaning of the day of Pentecost, and the days
leading up to this day.
When God decides to
offer us eternal life, He puts the Spirit of truth with
us, so we can learn of the
God’s tremendous
love and patience is shown at this time. If we
refuse eternal life during the fifty days, we can go
back to the world and still have a chance at eternal
life later on. By doing this, we will not please
God, and have thrown away our chance to be a
firstfruit. We do not yet have the Spirit of truth
in us until God gives it to us, the disciples received
it at Pentecost, and it is probable that this is when it
is given today also.
There are requirements of receiving the Holy
Spirit of power or truth, we must believe, love and
accept the new knowledge of eternal life, which God has
given to us.
We cannot blaspheme the Spirit prior to receiving it.
THIS IS
UNBELIEVABLE that people would actually refuse eternal
life. We are not talking about people in the
world, we are talking about people who already have the
earnest of the Spirit. So why don’t they want
eternal life?
Obviously their
hearts are not right towards God.
During the time of
the exodus, God required the men to have physical
courage to enter the Promised Land. Physical and
spiritual courage is required to enter the Promised Land
by God’s spiritual servants.
The Promised Land
is a type of eternal life.
Jos 1:6 Be strong
and of good courage, for to this people you shall
divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to
their fathers to give them.
Rev 21:6 And He said
to me, "It
is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End. I will give of the fountain of the
water of life freely to him who thirsts.
Rev 21:7 He who
overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his
God and he shall be My son.
Rev 21:8 But the
cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burns with fire and
brimstone, which is the second death."
Pentecost is a Holy
Day and no work is to be done.
Lev 23:21 And you
shall proclaim on the same day that it is
a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary
work on it.
It shall be a statute forever in all your
dwellings throughout your generations.
We are called
chosen and faithful, if we are to be firstfruits.
We are called when we receive the earnest of the
Spirit.
We are chosen when we accept the end time knowledge for
God’s church. This
is the knowledge of eternal life. We must love
this new knowledge, we must believe it, we must obey it. Then we must
pass the tests and trials which God puts before us, we
must believe and obey God.
God will decide when we qualify to receive the
Holy Spirit of power. Once we have
the Holy Spirit of power or truth, we are chosen and
have eternal life inherent.
We then must press on with our spiritual calling and
prove faithful until the end.
The end time
knowledge which God is giving to the Laodicean era of
His church, is restored knowledge. Much has been
lost since the time of the disciples, and this new
knowledge differs from what we have been taught till
now. God is restoring all things, knowledge will
be increased, this is the time of the end.
What a fabulous
plan God has for His people. The new knowledge of
this day is exciting, let us rejoice in this Holy Day as
God instructs us.
The receiving of
the Holy Spirit of power is eternal life inherent, what
a priceless gift.
Our God is a God of
love, let's not disappoint Him, let us strive with our
whole heart and mind and being to be a firstfruit.
No greater gift
could be offered, let's prove to be faithful and endure
to the end.
