Sabbath: Pentecost
Image © Pacific Press from GoodSalt.com
Read for This Week’s Study: Acts 2:1-4, John 14:16, Acts 2:5-13, Joel 2:28-32, Acts 2:22-39, Ps. 110:1-3.
Memory Text: “This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear” (Acts 2:32-33, NRSV).
Pentecost” is from the word pentekoste, the Greek name for the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Exod. 34:22); it is also known as the Feast of the Firstfruits (Num. 28:26). The term means “fiftieth” and owes its usage to the fact that the feast was celebrated on the fiftieth day from the offering of the barley sheaf on the first day after the Passover. It was a day of joy and thanksgiving, when the people of Israel brought before the Lord “the firstfruits of the wheat harvest” (Exod. 34:22, NIV).
The feast then became a fitting symbol for the first spiritual harvest of the Christian church, when the Holy Spirit was poured out more abundantly than ever before, and three thousand people were baptized on a single day (Acts 2:41). Following the ascension of Jesus and His exaltation in heaven, this outpouring of the Spirit was a sudden, supernatural event that transformed the apostles from simple and obscure Galileans into men of conviction and courage who would change the world.
Pentecost is often called the birthday of the church, the time that Christ’s followers, Jews and (later) Gentiles, were legitimized as God’s new community on earth.
Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, July 14.
(57)
The words of Jesus echoed in the minds of the disciples “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”
In obedience to Christ’s command, they waited in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father—the outpouring of the Spirit.
They repeated the promises of Jesus, So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
They put aside their pride and humbled themselves before the Lord, No earthly power could distract them from their mission. satan could no longer was able to hold back the flood gates of heaven. He who came down openly and descended upon his Son as in the form of a dove now descended upon those gathered in the upper room. The birth of a nation was initiated heaven came down. Kingdom of God was brought to this earth by the rock that was not cut out, but not by human hands.
Jesus said you will be baptized with holy spirit, so were 3000 in one day baptized with water or the holy spirit?
Start of NT church HS on women and men no distinction!
There had never been any distinction based on gender by God concerning the Holy Spirit, which is how all become sanctified. The Word, the Blood, and the Spirit are for all who believe in Christ. Without the Spirit, no one can be a "partaker of the Divine nature".
Pentecost have nothing to do with the common and or popular belief that believers must speak in tongues in order for us to go to heaven
The "church" was the continuation of the "congregation" which had first been delivered from Egyptian bondage by God through Moses. The "faith once delivered to the saints" was that which God gave through Moses from Sinai, and is still the basis of faith for the "church"(NT word for congregation). So we could say the birth of the congregation/church was the first Passover, and the NT church was only the continuation of that "faith once delivered to the saints" by the faithful remnant of that congregation that had accepted the Messiah, and now had the good news that the covenant first given to Adam had been made sure(ratified) by the blood of Jesus, as the Lamb of God, which all previous sacrifices had pointed to.
Paul makes this case very well in Romans 9-11 doesn't he? The NT church/congregation was the continuation of the original "olive tree" into which all believers are "grafted in" by faith in Christ, who was the central teaching of the OT law and prophets, as Jesus had pointed out to the two sorrowing disciples on the road to Emmaus. The eventual blindness and resulting falsehood of those who rejected Christ did not change the Truth He had come to restore for all who would come to believe in Him. So Pentecost was the faithful remnant receiving the Spirit and power of God to be witnesses of the truth given to the patriarchs since the beginning, then written by Moses, and accepted by all who receive Jesus, and believe on His name.
It is the individual who must be born again. The church the body of all who are born again, and is only the continuation of the line of those who repent and believe in God's promises, which have always been good news for sinners since Eden.
The NT church was not a new thing, but a continuation of "Israel" by faith, as it has always been in God's reckoning. As Paul wrote; we are Abraham's seed if we are Christ's, who is the promised Seed of Abraham. Regardless of which age, the church/congregation is made up of all who believe in God's promised salvation in Christ/Messiah. It's the same woman in Revelation 12 whether before or after the birth of the man child who is now on the right hand of God, and soon to return for all those who love His appearing and are sanctified by His Spirit.
One Fold, One Shepherd, since Adam.
Hi Robert, so glad to see you making it clear that the church is a continuation of "Israel" by faith. We are Abraham's seed, children of the promise, we are God's people.
om 9:6 Not however that the Word of God has failed, for not all those of Israel are Israel;
Rom 9:7 nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But, "In Isaac shall your Seed be called."
Rom 9:8 That is, not the children of the flesh are children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for a seed.