MINISTUDY
Pentecost Pictures the Firstfruits in God's Plan
God's
master plan continues to unfold before your very eyes! As you
discovered in the last two mini studies, there are seven annual
festivals picturing God's plan of salvation for mankind.
God
instituted these festivals to remind His Church year after year of how
He is bringing about His stupendous purpose for our lives — of
ultimately becoming spirit-born members of His divine, universe-ruling
Family.
The Passover is the beginning, the very first step, in
His master plan for mankind. It is a memorial to remind us that Jesus
Christ ("our Passover" — I Cor. 5;7) paid a tremendous price for our
sins.
Once we have been forgiven by God, we must strive to put
all the "leaven" of sin out of our lives, as pictured by the Feast of
Unleavened Bread (I Cor, 5:8). That is our part of God's plan, which we
are to act out every spring by putting physical leaven out of our homes
and eating unleavened bread during seven days. This seven-day Festival
reminds us of our continual need to obey Gods commandments.
But
God knows that to successfully put sir 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.
This is the third step in God's master plan, pictured by the third annual Festival, the day of Pentecost.
1.
What were God's instructions regarding this Festival? Lev, 23:15-17,
20. Was this Feast a Holy Day, or Sabbath of rest on which the people
were to assemble? Verse 21. Was it to be kept by God's people every
year forever? Same verse.
At this
point in our study we need to understand the symbolism of a ceremony
associated with the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, and how it ties in
with the third annual Festival. Although the meaning of this ceremony
is important, it is no longer performed today because it pictured a
future event which has since occurred.
2. What kind of offering had to be presented to God before the spring harvest could begin? Verses 9-11. 14.
As
explained in the first of this series of seven studies, God established
His festivals in conjunction with the two annual agricultural harvests
in the land of Palestine. God uses these harvests as a pattern for the
two spiritual ''harvests" of His great master plan.
The
first harvest of this part of the world is the relatively smaller
spring grain harvest following winter rains. Anciently, it began on the
day of the "wavesheaf" offering and ended just before the Feast of
Firstfruits, or day of Pentecost as it is called among Greek-speaking
peoples. {Pentecost is a Greek term meaning "fiftieth [day].")
In
the late summer and early autumn, the second and much bigger harvest is
reaped. It follows the late spring rains in Palestine and anciently
ended just before the Feast of Ingathering, otherwise known as the
Feast of Tabernacles.
These physical harvests help us to
understand that God is not dealing with the vast majority of the world
today. God is calling only the few into His Church during the period
between Christ's life on earth as a human being and His Second Coming.
And so God intends the spring festivals to illustrate to His Church
yearly that all of those He has called to become His Spirit-begotten
children since Christ's first coming are the "firstfruits" (Jas. 1:18)
— the relatively small beginning of His spiritual harvest of mankind
into His divine Family.
Later,
as pictured by the festivals of the much larger
autumn harvest season, God will call the billions to salvation and Sonship in His glorious Family after Christ's return.
As
we read in Leviticus 23, the Days of Unleavened Bread occur at the
beginning of the spring harvest season. Many shoots of grain, planted
earlier, have grown to maturity. They are now fruit-bearing stalks
ready to be harvested.
The
spring harvest began in the following manner: On the morning of the
first day of the week (Sunday) during the Days of Unleavened Bread, a
sheaf of newly sickled barley was brought to the priest to be accepted
by God. This was called the "wavesheaf offering" and represented the
first of the firstfruits harvest.
Once
the wavesheaf was offered, the harvest could begin. The spring harvest
ended by the time of the Feast of Firstfruits 50 days later, when the
people gathered on this annual Sabbath to give God thanks for the
firstfruits of the year's crops He had given them (verses 15-17, 21).
Now let's see the connection between the wavesheaf offering and Jesus
Christ.
3. Who was the first ever to be
resurrected from the dead into God's Family? I Cor. 15:2Q. Was He
therefore the first of the firstfruits of God's spiritual harvest? Same
verse, Cot. 1:16. Therefore, are Spirit-begotten Christians clearly the
firstfruits of God's great master plan? Jas. 1 16, Rom. 8:23.
4.
After Christ was resurrected from the dead, did He have to ascend to
His Father in heaven? John 20:17. On that same day after returning from
heaven, could His disciples touch Him? Compare Matthew 28:9 with John
20:19-20, 27-28.
This was the
first day of the week (Sunday) during the Days of Unleavened Bread. It
was on the very same day that the wavesheaf was offered that Jesus
Christ was accepted by His Father as the spiritual "wavesheaf" offering
in heaven.
Christ
therefore fulfilled the symbolism of the Old Testament wavesheaf
offering. He was the first resurrected Son of God — the first harvested
product of God's master plan. He became the firstborn Son of God — the
first human to complete the process of salvation and be "born again."
But
Jesus could not have become
the captain of our salvation and our elder brother without
possessing an all-important ingredient from God —
something we all must have to be born again as He was.
5.
Could Jesus do any spiritual works, including obedience to God, with
just His human strength? John 5:30, 8;28. Where did He get the
necessary power? John 14:10, last part The Father "dwelt" in Jesus
through the Holy Spirit.
6. Did Christ promise the same
spiritual help to His disciples? Verse 16. What is the "Helper"? Verse
26. What else is the Holy Spirit called? Verse 17, God's Spirit had
been with the disciples, but Christ promised to send it to be within
them, as it had been within Him.
7. After He had been
crucified and resurrected from the dead, did Jesus repeat His promise
to send the Holy Spirit? Acts 1:8. Where did He tell His disciples to
wait until they received God's Spirit? Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4-5.
8.
On what day did the disciples actually receive God's Spirit? Acts
2:1-4. Did they thus become members of God's spiritual Church? I
Cor. 12:12-14.
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" mentioned
in Lev. 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.
The
New Testament Festival of 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 spiritual harvest
began to be prepared for reaping into His Family.
