y Days 2025 nleavened Bread April 13-19 - Pentecost June 1st
Pentecost This feast is called the “Feast of Weeks” (Deuteronomy 16:9-10), “Feast of Firstfruits” (Exodus 23:16), and Pentecost, since it was the fiftieth day of the spring harvest season, (Gk Pentekoste- means“fiftieth”). In the Old Testament, on the morn- ing of the first day of the week (Sunday) during the Days of Unleav- ened Bread, a sheaf of newly sickled barley was brought to the priest to be accepted by God: The “wavesheaf offering,” representing the first of the firstfruits harvest. It was on the very same day that Jesus was accepted by His Father as the spiritual “wavesheaf” offering in heaven. Christ therefore fulfilled the symbolism of the Old Testament wavesheaf offering as the first res- urrected Son of God (I Corinthians 15:20). It was on the day of Pentecost that God first sent His Spirit to begin His Church – to beget and strengthen the firstfruits He was beginning to call into His Church, symbolically represented by the two “wave loaves” (Leviticus 23:17-20). Fifty days after Christ’s sacrifice was accepted in heaven, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples just as He had promised (Acts 2:1-6). Pentecost is now a memorial that commemorates the founding of the New Testament Church of God, for it was on the day of Pentecost in A.D. 31 that the firstfruits of God’s spiri-
tual harvest began to be prepared for reaping into His Family. Those now called into God’s Church are a part of God’s spiritual firstfruits – the first group to be offered salva- tion. He is preparing the future rulers and teachers of His Kingdom (Reve- lation 3:21). God knows that to successfully put sin out of our lives and keep it out, our own human willpower and abilities are not enough. We need the spiritual strength of God’s Holy Spirit to help us obey God’s spiritual law. Shortly before His trial and crucifix- ion Jesus told His disciples that He would send the “Comforter” – the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-18). His Spirit had been with the disciples, but Jesus promised to send it to be within them, as it had been with- in Him (John 14:17). The disciples miraculously received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost A.D. 31 (Acts 2:1-13). This marked the beginning of God’s Spirit-begotten New Testa- ment Church. It is necessary to obey God to re- ceive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32). Christians must not only have God’s Spirit, but also be yielded to it, letting it transform them so that they become more like Jesus Christ and His Father (Romans 6:13). The indwelling of God’s Spirit allows His followers to obey Him, overcome sin, and endure to the end.
We are to continually “strive” – to ex- pend energy and effort – to put sin out of our lives (Hebrews 12:1-4). As a child, Jesus went up with His par- ents keeping the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread (Luke 2:41-43). In the year Jesus was crucified, His en- emies were expecting Him to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Mark 14:1). More than 20 years after Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, Paul and his companions had ob- served the Feast of Unleavened Bread at Philippi (Acts 20:6). The Apostle Paul, inspired by God, told New Testament Christians that they should keep the Feast of Un- leavened Bread (I Corinthians 5:7-8). Paul was telling the members of the Corinthian Church to put out spiritu- al leaven, just as they had already put out all physical leaven in preparation for this festival. They were to keep the Feast not only with unleavened bread, but also with the spiritually unleav- ened attitude of righteousness, sincer- ity, and truth. For those who have been called to Christ by the Father, putting all leav- en and leavened products out of their dwellings for the seven days of this festival pictures their putting sin out of their lives. Since seven is the num- ber God uses to denote completeness and perfection, the seven days of the Feast remind us that God wants His people to work at putting sin com- pletely out of their lives.
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