God Fulfilling Pentecost, Pt. 4

Ron Weinland

May 26, 2018

Today will be Part 4 of the series entitled God Fulfilling Pentecost.

We began this series by reviewing the period of Passover and Unleavened Bread that then leads up to Pentecost, obviously, which are all covered in the book of Leviticus 23. Then this led us into the purpose for this series which is about how God has been fulfilling Pentecost. And to me it’s an awesome subject to go through because the fulfillment of it is over an incredibly long period of time.

And we went all the way back to the very beginning, to the first person that God began to work with that was God’s process there of beginning to work with Pentecost then, because it was about Abel. And he was the first one that God began to transform, to give him the help and strength that he needed to be able to do a job that he was given until he was finally killed by his own brother. Things that are incredible to understand about God’s way of life and what has happened since that period of time.

And that’s why we went to the next section there when we discussed some of that as God was working with them and Christ himself said that people had been killed from the time of Abel up to Zacharias as he was condemning the Jews at that particular time because he said that you are responsible for killing the prophets that God has sent. And so he gave that vast period of time which reflects in part those indeed who had been killed, but we understand that from Abel all the way up to the time of Christ’s coming that that was the portion God was working with in the beginning of His plan to fulfill that first phase which is represented by the wave loaves, by one of the wave loaves.

And everything has incredible meaning, of what God gave the Israelites at different times in the meaning of the Holy Days and those things that are spelled out, especially in Leviticus 24. Things that so many people just don’t grasp, don’t comprehend because they don’t understand what God’s plan and purpose is for mankind.

Then we moved forward to when God gave the Israelites their first Passover. And some have questioned some of that thinking that they kept the Passover, they kept Unleavened Bread, they kept the Holy Days beginning with Abel, and that isn’t true. God gave them understanding of things about the seventh day Sabbath. He gave them things about how to have a relationship with Him and how people were to live toward one another – basically the 10 Commandments but not codified, not given to anyone specifically at that point in time.

And so everyone was judged by how they lived and by how much God had given to them. And as time went along God continued to give more and more understanding, or at least more and more knowledge about His purpose and His plan. And so we have followed that through time.

And so here we came to a time then that God gave to the Israelites the first Passover as He began to introduce another phase of His plan, that He had a purpose for a Passover. They didn’t understand what it was about, and candidly, so many after that never understood what it was about, this killing of the lamb on the 14th of Nisan/Abib, the first month of God’s calendar. And so they continued to observe that and not grasping and comprehending that one had to come along who would fulfill the Passover, who would have to die, who would have to spill his blood to the earth for mankind. And so that’s why we have the two wave loaves, because those from the time of Abel all the way up to the time of Christ are represented by the first wave loaf and then those that are from that period of time, the Church, when it began in 31 A.D., all the way up to Christ’s coming represent the next wave loaf.

And so we have two wave loaves. Awesome to understand their meaning and what’s represented by that.

Then we came to the point in time where God led the children of Israel out of Egypt because of the Passover, starting with the Passover. Talked about how God destroyed all of the Egyptian army, every bit of it including Pharaoh himself in the Red Sea. And then God brought them up to Mount Sinai. That was the first place that they came to, that they settled at after that long journey. On the day of Pentecost He gave them the 10 Commandments. Again, God fulfilling Pentecost.

To me, what a beautiful picture. On the day of Pentecost God gives the 10 Commandments, a codified law whereby man is to live by that because it shows mankind how to love God, how to love fellow man, how to live God’s way of life. And we understand the first four commandments are about a relationship with God. If people want to have a true and a right relationship with God, the one who created us, the one who made it, they should obey what He says. And yet mankind has made up so many different ideas and beliefs about god’s and a god, even God. And so much of that does not contain that which is required by God, is that “If you worship Me, if you want to have a relationship with me there is a way you’re to live toward Me.” What an incredible thing to understand!

He says, “I am the Eternal Ever living God and you’re to have no other God’s before Me.” You think, that ought to cause people to stop and think a little bit about what He says after that, because then He goes on to explain how we should live. And people don’t want to live that way. They have other days they want to observe besides the one that God said to observe right then and there. He said the seventh day Sabbath, every seven days you’ll have a Sabbath. And so people have come up with ideas in religion about a Friday worship, a Sunday worship, and a Monday worship by the major religions of the world that take up the vast majority of mankind, in that respect. Incredible what mankind has done rather than listening to what the one who created us and made us, who has a purpose for life, reveals to us why we’re here, reveals to us why He put us on this earth, and so forth.

I get a little worked up when I think about some of those things because some of it is without excuse indeed. But mankind has made choices and that’s a part of the condemnation that God gave the Jewish – Christ, actually, gave the Jewish people when he came to them and said “You’ve killed the prophets from the time of Abel to Zacharias. You haven’t listened. You haven’t listened to God. You haven’t lived His way of life.”

And so He brought them up to Mount Sinai and gave them those 10 Commandments. And the last six commandments, we understand, is about how people are to live toward each other, how people are to get along.

I was thinking this morning – I heard a couple people talking, a couple ladies in the place where we were eating, and they were going on about other people and drama, drama, drama, about how they’d been mistreated and one was talking about how, “Yeah, and she told me that my kitchen table that I just bought is not as good as hers.” The things people get in arguments over and debate and division, and yet if they’d just live right toward one another, respecting one another, striving to live by God’s laws those things wouldn’t arise.

So He came to Mount Sinai, gave them the 10 Commandments, and God showing all along that “I’ll give you My law but you can’t keep it; you won’t keep it.” What an awesome thing to understand. You can’t keep God’s laws, His way of life, without His help though mankind has tried. Judah tried. The other tribes of Israel, they were taken into captivity, lost their identity, and as a whole the world has not known where they went to on the earth, all those nations of people. And yet one primarily... Primarily one was left behind, Judah, and never lost their identity because at least they did keep a hold of the Sabbath day and the annual Holy Days, in that respect, as to things they have tried to keep in a physical sort of way before God on their own, though they’ve changed many things through time, including the Passover.

And so God brought us then to another period of time that we’re going to go into in a moment here, but of the time that He finally showed how we can keep His law. Again, on Pentecost through the power of the holy spirit. And it’s only by God’s help in our lives can we keep His way of life. We’ll come to that as we continue to go along here.

And so after the children of Israel were at Mount Sinai... For forty years they were in the wilderness. Forty years eating manna. Forty long years eating manna, collecting manna six days of the week and eating manna seven days of the week. That was their primary way of being able to be alive during that whole period of time physically. Awesome! And then we read about how God brought them across the river just in front of Jericho, and they passed over the river Jordan. And God stopped the waters and performed a great miracle for Israel just like He did when He took them through the Red Sea. And it talks about the area where the waters were held up and the time of flooding, because that’s the period of time, in the spring, when it floods through there, and God stopped the water and the Israelites went over toward Jericho. Awesome!

And then we looked at the name of “Joshua” and what it means, the one who led the children of Israel into a physical promised land, in that respect having meaning that was to be fulfilled later on by one with the same name who was to lead his people into a spirit, spiritual, if you will, promised land, a promise of God’s Kingdom, a promise of something in the future that’s spoken of in different places throughout scripture. And so an incredible story; Joshua, meaning “God will save,” or “God’s salvation.”

And we read that scripture in Matthew where an angel came and told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because the child that was growing inside of her, that was begotten in her, was of the holy spirit. It was from God Almighty. Awesome story! And He said, “This is the name you’re to call him.” And it was Joshua because Joshua has the meaning of “God’s salvation.” And then it went on to say why you’re to call him this – “Because he will save the people from sin.” Mankind from sin, in essence. And so we have the name. There is another name that’s used but it doesn’t have that meaning whatsoever, and yet God commanded that this is what he is to be called because this is what he’s fulfilling.

And so that, to me, is an awesome, great change that we have made to be in unity and harmony finally in those things that we have addressed as time has gone on here, specifically the trinity, and then on to this one here are huge changes in God’s Church.

Let’s turn over to John 1 because now we go on to another phase 1400 years, right at 1400 years later after God brought the children of Israel into the promised land that we come to the time of the birth of Christ. Again, God at this point here getting ready to add far greater meaning, revelation, understanding of His way of life, progressively so because before this people didn’t know very much about... They knew about a Messiah, they knew about a Christ, but they didn’t understand the scriptures. They didn’t grasp the things until Christ taught them as he worked with them, the disciples, and then they really didn’t grasp a lot of those things. They make it very clear they didn’t grasp those things until the day of Pentecost. Then all these things began to flood in on them because of the power of God’s spirit that was working in them to be able to see things that Christ had told them before this, about what was to be accomplished in his life and what he was doing and why he was there, though they still didn’t understand a great deal. And God continued to reveal some of those things while they were yet alive in the first era of the Church.

And so we read in John 1:1... It’s amazing how the world reads this and even some, if you will, the Church that was scattered before. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. Awesome way of saying all this. And it’s easy to read things into this and to other scriptures as mankind tends to do because of preconceived beliefs and ideas instead of grasping fully what it’s saying here. “In the beginning.” What beginning is it talking about here? Before anything existed. Before anything existed in a spirit realm, long before a physical realm was ever created it says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Awesome!

And Mr. Armstrong gave a good definition of this as it is taken in scripture to mean “the revelatory thought of God.” The mind of God. It reveals God. It’s like the thinking of God, the mind of God. It’s who He is, the being of God. It’s like us. You know, we are what we think. What comes out of us, how we communicate, how we act, how we live, it all goes back to what’s up here. It’s what’s in the mind. Every action that comes out of us, everything we say that comes out of us is a result of our thinking. Everything we speak to others, it all reflects how we think. And that says a lot.

Well, that’s basically a part of what it’s saying here in describing God. Everything that He is, who He is, it’s in His mind, His thinking. The revelatory thought of Almighty God – the mind and the being of God, if you will.

And so it says, and the Word was with God. It simply means in the Greek language here that it’s God’s Word. It says here, “In the beginning was the Word, it was with God” because it’s God’s word. That’s what the words mean here. It belongs to God. It’s who God is.

...and the Word was God. It’s just going about in a way to drive a point home that everything about the Word is what God is. It’s who He is.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without, or as it is here, apart from Him was not anything made that was made. Everything came from this mind, this being, this power.

Verse 14—And the Word was made flesh. So in the beginning it just reveals that mind, that being, everything that God is, everything that He purposes that comes out of Him, that is about Him has existed forever. We can’t understand that. We can’t understand things that go into eternity that have always existed. We can’t even begin to comprehend such things let alone the physical universe that’s out here that He has created. And so people wrestle with things like this. “Well, if we were created where did He come from?” How do you understand something that’s always existed, a being that has an incredible plan and purpose, and explaining things then on very simple terms to human beings who have very limited capacity up here? We really do – very limited capacity.

That’s why we try to explain things by our own understanding, things about creation. We’d rather believe that something crawled out of the swamp and became mankind rather than God actually made us, created us, began human life on the earth. And on and on it goes.

And the Word was made flesh. Awesome! Beautiful! It’s talking about His own Son, that finally that mind, that Word – describes the Christ, describes the Son of God, how he thought, how he was, why he did the things that he did. And he was in absolute unity and oneness with God the Father. Why? Because he had the same mind, “the Word was made flesh.” Mary was begotten of the holy spirit. The holy spirit is not just the spirit of God and the power of God, it is of the mind of God. It is the ability to communicate the thinking, the way, the truths of God Almighty to mankind. The holy spirit, something the angelic realm has never had. That’s why we’ve gone through and talked about those things. They are spirit and they were given the ability to think on their own – free moral agents. A third of the angels rebelled and went with Lucifer, who became Satan. And then God created mankind. Incredible to understand this process and what we understand, what God has given to us.

So, The Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us. Now, the only time before this that individuals were able to experience the Word of God was like in the time of Abraham when God manifested Himself to him at different times and different ways. One time was as Melchizedek, picturing a role that His Son would eventually fulfill. Melchizedek. And so God communicated with him personally and communicated other things to him by what He told him. And I don’t want to spend time on that story, but anyway, incredible how that relationship existed.

And so it says, And he dwelt among us. So now it’s referring to Christ. He was born of Mary, and the mind he had that at 12 years old we read the story of how he was in the temple and how he confounded those who were supposedly very knowledgeable of God’s word, of the Bible, of scripture that had been written to that point in time. And they marveled at what he had to say about it – 12 years old. Something that we really don’t grasp and comprehend yet, that mind as he grew up and developed. Incredible!

Everything he did he knew what he was doing and why he did it. That’s why when he was at the point of death he knew that he was... He prayed to God the Father about it, that what he had come to fulfill he was now fulfilling. And he knew it so real in his mind, what God had said, what was the mind of God about what he would have to suffer through, that was so real in his mind that when he went to pray those three different times he perspired blood through his pores. That’s how it’s described in scripture. Such agony, knowing what he was getting ready to experience and suffer. It was so real in his mind it was as though he was already going through it.

Suffering is not easy. When you know something of that magnitude, that you’re going to be beaten so severely that people aren’t even going to recognize you when it’s over. They couldn’t recognize him. The flesh had been ripped off his body, off his face, even because of the cat-o-nine tails and how the Romans scourged him, beat him, and then hung as he was to die. Incredible. And he felt that. It was so real in his being to perspire like that, blood. Incredible! That’s why he’s our High Priest. That’s why he understands what it’s like to live in this human flesh. That’s why God gave him to be our High Priest and our Passover, to fulfill the things he did. Awesome to understand God’s purpose in this.

...and he dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father). The only one who was ever intended in time to be the only directly begotten of God the Father by His holy spirit into a woman, into Mary, and began to grow until he was born of human flesh. “And he dwelt among us,” the Word of God made flesh and dwelling among us. And those things he then taught the disciples, those things he gave to them, a vast majority of that, some of the deepest, most awesome things he gave was on Passover. Some of the instruction, things he taught them, things he gave to them, the fulfillment of  his ministry and what he had to say on that particular night. Incredible.

As it says here, full of grace and truth. Grace, mercy, kindness, love—the mind of God—and truth.

Hebrews 9. Let’s turn over there. Beginning in verse 11 it says, But Christ, same word as Messiah, meaning the same thing, the anointed one, anointed to become King of kings. That’s what it’s all about throughout the Old Testament all into the New. But Christ, being come a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. So what’s it talking about? Well, it gives an example here of things that were physical that God gave to picture something that we are to learn from that had spiritual meaning and intent, but always giving that which is physical first because we’re physical human beings. And so this is the process whereby He teaches us and helps us to begin to grasp spiritual things in time.

Because it takes time to see those things and what God has intended by them on a spiritual plane, just as Jesus Christ... See, I said it. ...Joshua the Christ said when he told the disciples and told those around him, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” They mocked him and made fun of him because when he was teaching at the temple they thought physically about the temple and it’s like, “You’re going to build this – what it took so long for hundreds and hundreds of people to build over a period of time – and you’re going to raise it back up?” They just mocked him and made fun because “You’re nuts!” That’s how they thought because they didn’t grasp what he was saying.

They didn’t grasp he was talking about his death, because he’s talking about something that he was fulfilling that’s pictured by the temple! It’s the beginning of the temple. It’s the cornerstone of what God is building in a spiritual family. But they couldn’t grasp that. It wasn’t meant that they should. The disciples didn’t even grasp it yet

So again here, But Christ, being come a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle – that which God is building on a spiritual plane that begins with Christ. This is what it’s discussing here. The physical tabernacle, where is it today? Well, it’s just not there. It was destroyed. And so the Jews right now to this day they think they have the stones and the foundation of some of that and they go up there and they put things in the wall of it, you know prayers and so forth. I guess... I’m sorry, but some of the things we do as human beings. Its like can’t God hear you? You have to write it on a piece of paper and put it here in this wall and somehow this has some kind of spiritual meaning to it or some kind of important meaning to God? And they don’t understand what they’re doing.

God wants a relationship with mankind, one that we can express verbally to the Great God, one that we can do as Jesus – see, I’m going to have a hard time with this change – with Christ and speaking of that when he said, “When you pray don’t be as others who like to be heard. The only time we do it when we’re to be heard is in a special meeting like this on the Sabbath or whenever. But on our own, by our self in a relationship toward God, we don’t do it in public. And Christ said, “When you do it go into your closet alone with God and pray.” It’s about a personal relationship with the Great God of the universe and He wants to know what’s in here as you pour out your heart, your thinking, your mind to the Great God. He already knows you but He wants you to develop that relationship with Him by your choices, by what it is that you express verbally then to Him.

So again, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands... God’s doing it. God’s creating it. Scriptures speak of that. It’s God’s creation. God’s creation didn’t stop when He put mankind on the earth. There is a greater creation that follows, the most, well, the greatest thing that God can do. There is nothing greater than what He is creating in Elohim, His own family. Awesome!

So it goes on to say ...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once. Again, a beautiful picture here. Because I can’t help but think of Leviticus 16, when we read this on the Day of Atonement, when we read about it, and it talks about him going in to cleanse his family, if you will, going into the temple and not coming out until it’s done. And that pictures the work of the Christ as High Priest. Because it was the High Priest that could only go in the temple once a year to do this. And so this is all pictured by Christ, that he is in that process of cleansing and preparing his family so that he can return again. Incredible!

So it says ...by his own blood he entered in once into the Holy Place, where the Great God of the universe is. The only one from among mankind who has ever been there and yet people think that’s where they go when they die. No, they don’t. They just die and they go back to the dust of the earth and they have to await a resurrection. Incredible!

...by his own blood he entered in once into the Holy Place. So we think of this process. He became our Wave Sheaf. He became our Passover. He became our High Priest. ...having obtained eternal redemption for us. And so after dying as our Passover, being received of God as the Wave Sheaf, God accepted that sacrifice and then the process thereby where God is saving mankind from their sins as the angel told Joseph to call his name, because God will save them from their sins. That’s why he came.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and of ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh... It was only a physical thing. It was only a physical relationship with Israel, in that respect, and with God on a physical plane here of things they were to live by. Nothing spiritual in it whatsoever. ...how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, no leaven, totally unleavened, no sin, without spot purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And a lot is said there.

So how are we able to serve the living God? Because we’re able to be forgiven of our sin. Because God won’t have a relationship with anyone... God will not be around sin and so sin had to be taken care of, and the only way that sin is taken care of is through our Passover. And so it’s because of that, then, when sin is forgiven, that God will work with us, otherwise He won’t work with us. That’s why it’s so dangerous to commit sin and not repent quickly of it. When we sin, and we all sin, we’re to go before God and cry out to Him to be forgiven of that sin. We acknowledge before God that we have gone against Him, that we have not lived as we should have. We’re agreeing with Him that He is right and we’re wrong. We don’t want the way of selfishness, we want His way. And so every time we do that we’re able to grow in character, God molding and transforming this mind and how we think to where we become stronger and stronger on a spiritual plane. We agree with God.

I can’t help but think of the many who are called that go by the wayside when they quit doing that, they quit repenting. They begin to tolerate certain sin to exist in their life. And when they do that they become cut off from a relationship with God, cut off from the holy spirit, and they revert back to things that they can’t see anymore. People can go all the way back to Christmas and Easter and Sunday worship, and they have by the droves because they lose something that they can only have and maintain in the mind if God is there. It can only be maintained by the holy spirit dwelling within us. That’s why we repent quickly, because we believe that, we know that, and we want to have a continuing relationship with our God.

1 Corinthians 15:20—But now is Christ risen from the dead, the first of the firstfruits. Awesome! ...and become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That’s what happens. When a human being dies they have to wait until God resurrects them. And in the 4,000 years before Christ no one was resurrected to have that kind of life, to have a continuing life. And so it wasn’t until the first one who came long, who was the very Son of God, because a part of God’s purpose and God’s plan, that he is the cornerstone of the temple, that he be resurrected from the dead. The first, the firstborn from among the dead of all mankind, meaning very clearly here that the rest of mankind is dead at that point in time! And ever since that time people live and they die. They don’t go anywhere. They don’t have an immortal soul. What an awesome thing to understand, that we await a resurrection.

And so it goes on to say...For since by man came death, it’s the way of mankind, the way of human life, physical; we’re temporary. God never meant that we should live eternal lives, that we have immortal life within us. He didn’t give that to mankind. He made it so we could live and then die and to learn from that process, that without God we have no life, we owe life to Him. He gives us life, physical life, and if we so choose when time comes to us, spirit life, everlasting life. But we have to do it God’s way not our way.

For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. So here is the first. Here is the first one resurrected from the dead. Incredible! For as in Adam all die... Because we’re all temporary, physical human beings we all die. In time we return to the dust of the earth. ...even so in Christ, the anointed one, shall all be made alive. Doesn’t mean it’s owed to everyone, but that’s how those who come later are going to be made alive. It’s going to be through the anointed one. It’s going to be through the Christ. It’s going to be through our Passover, through our High Priest.

But every person in their own order. So who was first? Christ, the firstfruits. He was the first, the first to receive everlasting life. He didn’t have it before like the world believes in the trinity, and some of the scattered Body. He had a beginning in Mary and then he had life, a physical life, and then he had to do as all human beings have done – to die. But he, his flesh did not see corruption. It didn’t see decay. It didn’t return to the dust of the earth. That’s what it say’s in scripture and that’s what he fulfilled. Because in three days he was resurrected from the dead, the first, as it says here. For in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every person in their own order. There’s an order to resurrections, to when God’s going to resurrect people, has a plan for them.

And so much of that has to do with the meaning of this sermon here and what we’re talking about, God fulfilling Pentecost, because that’s the beginning. Referred to as the Feast of Weeks or as the Feast of Firstfruits. It’s about the firstfruits, the wave loaves, the first 6,000 years of those God has worked with in that period of time to be next after Christ in a resurrection. Awesome!

...so every one in their own order, as it talks about here, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they who are Christ’s at his coming. Now, it seems like pretty clear English. And it is to us. And that’s awesome that we understand that, that you’re able to see that. Because there’s only one way you can, and it’s by God’s help. He gives us the ability to see something that’s so clear, “Christ the firstfruits, and then afterward they who are Christ’s at his coming.” Because they have no life yet until he comes, until he returns. And then we understand a greater fulfillment of Pentecost at that time, the rest of the firstfruits. Beautiful! Awesome plan.

Let’s turn over to Acts 1. Because of how God will, again, fulfill Pentecost, followed soon after Christ’s resurrection – after his resurrection I marvel at the day, the way God worked this out. Pentecost is always on a Sunday. And on that morning was the Wave Sheaf, Jesus Christ... Joshua Christ – I’ll get it. This is going to be a hard one to conquer and overcome – been doing it for so long in God’s Church.

But for Joshua the Christ – awesome to understand that on that day of Pentecost...

He told Mary and the others there “Don’t touch me,” because he had to ascend first to his Father and to their Father, to his God and their God. And then just a little bit later as they were going back with the news that he was resurrected, that he’s alive, to go back and tell the disciples, right along the path as they were going back he appeared to them again, and this time he let them take hold of him and grab hold of him because he fulfilled... In that short period of time, just as with the High Priest every year when they offered the wave sheaf, how long does it take to do it? And he fulfilled it quickly and he was with them then. And the very reason he made those statements was so that we could understand you couldn’t touch him until he’s been received, accepted by the Father, and then when he is then it’s fine, because he’s been accepted for all of us. Beautiful how God has recorded things in scripture for our understanding.

So again here, Acts 1:1—In the former treatise, in other words, in the book of Luke, because this is Luke writing the Book of Acts and so he had written the book of Luke itself and now he’s writing this so he’s referring back to this. He says, O Theophilus, I gave account of all that Jesus both began to do and teach. And so a lot of these things that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote were written later on when they wrote of their account and their recollection, when God gave them, in essence, that instruction, that communication that these things were to be recorded, each one of them being witness of in their own way in writing. Because that’s what’s unique about it, they all perceive something in a different way as they heard him speak some of the same things, same accounts and what they wrote about, one recording something that another didn’t record. That’s why you have to go back through all these things even of his death that becomes complicated for people to figure out the timing. And even one of the best books out there, The Harmony of the Gospels doesn’t have it right because they don’t understand all of God’s plan and all the truth.

And so it goes on to say ...until the day in which he was taken up. And so he was with them for a period of time, and it goes on here, Luke continues to write about from where he left off then in the book of Luke. That’s what this is about. He saying, “I told you some of these things before,” and he continues in the story, again, writing around the period of time of 61 A.D. Incredible how much later it was.

He went on to say, then he through the holy spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he showed himself alive after his endurance (sufferings) by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days. So after he’d been resurrected, before he left for good, he was seen among them for forty days here, ten days away from Pentecost, and he gave them instruction and guidance and taught them things that now they could receive in greater way, in that respect, once Pentecost did come. Because they still didn’t grasp and understanding everything so God was leading them up to, Christ was leading them up to this point in time where he told them to stay in Jerusalem, to be in Jerusalem when this event occurs.

So he says, being seen of them forty days and speaking of those things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. So he went on and taught them things that they were able to even write about later on or come to understand in a deeper way as God worked with them through time here as His apostles.

Verse 4—And being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father. He’s talking about receiving of the holy spirit now for a Church, the called out ones of God, the Ecclesia of God, but talking about the formation of a Church. Before that, for 4,000 years, God worked with individuals. He would call individuals and work with them, like Abel, like Abraham, like Noah before that and different ones through time. And so God personally worked with them, not face to face, in that respect. He manifested himself at different times to some in different ways, just as we talked about with Abraham. Abraham saw him in different ways, more than one. And so God would manifest someone able to communicate to him on a physical plane because they didn’t have a lot of understanding of things. And God revealed to them then at different times how they were to live, what they were to do and so forth.

But for 4,000 years God worked individually. It wasn’t a Church that He worked with. There weren’t very many in 4,000 years with whom God worked who are going to return with Jesus Christ, Joshua Christ, see. One of these days I’ll be clean and be able to do this.

And so 4,000 years individuals and now a Church is being formed, being made ready where many, many more can be taught and worked with on a far greater plane and be drawn along and make up the entire amount. Because God has a specific number that’s going to return with Joshua the Christ.

Says, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me. For John... And so he’s referring back here to what he taught them on Passover night. That’s what’s so beautiful about John 14, 15, 16, in through there. John is the one who records this in a very powerful way. And basically Christ told them, “You believe in God, now believe also in me,” and he began to explain to them. He said, “The things that I have taught you, the things that I have spoken, I don’t speak my own words, but I speak what the Father’s given to me,” because he was of that mind. That mind and that Word was who he was. He had his own personality, he grew in his own purpose as the Passover and those things he knew he was going to fulfill as time went along but that beginning and that mind that he had was in absolute oneness and agreement with the Great God of the universe. Incredible to understand that.

And so he told them, then, he told John. He said that they were going to receive.... Basically he told them “Everything that I do is because the Father dwells in me and I dwell in Him,” and then he went on to say, “You’re going to experience some of the same thing and he referred to a paraclete. It’s called a comforter, the holy spirit in those next verses that follow. And he said that there would come that time when they would understand that now God the Father and Christ would dwell in them and they would dwell in God and in Christ spiritually. It’s talking about receiving the impregnation of the holy spirit.

And so John 14 and he said, “I’ll abide in you and you’ll abide in me,” dwell in, live in, continue in, those words as we understand them from the Greek language and what they mean, meaning all those words as they’re translated throughout scripture. So, beautiful verses here and what is given to us.

And so he’s explaining this, “Wait in Jerusalem until this promise.” He’s referring to this comforter, this holy spirit is poured out upon you, until you receive it.

So again ...but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me. For John truly baptized with water... The word, we understand, means “to immerse.” That’s why we understand it’s not sprinkling a little bit of water on top of the forehead. It doesn’t have meaning then. It’s you’re totally immersed in the water, and as it talks about “burying the old person,” the old self, “in a watery grave, and then coming up and walking in newness of life.” We’re to walk in a different way of life than we lived before and then we’re able to receive of the holy spirit. So all this is contained in the meaning of baptism.

But he said, John truly baptized you with water, he said, but you shall be baptized in the holy spirit not many days from now. Because before this, in this period of time when John... It was a baptism unto repentance but it was not of impregnation and receiving of the holy spirit. That was something far greater, far greater in meaning. And so he said “Now you’re going to be immersed in the holy spirit not many days from now.”

Verse 6—Therefore, when they had come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, will you at this time... Awesome! They still didn’t understand because they couldn’t yet. Will you at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? Because they believed in the Messiah, they believed he had some to take the away from the Roman rule and to establish God’s rule over mankind, the Kingdom of God on earth. That’s what they thought when he was coming into Jerusalem, when they laid down the palms and everything else on the roadway and they called out referring to, in their cry, the son of David. They understood. They believed that he was the Christ that was to come from the lineage of David and so that’s why they were so despondent than after he was put to death. Because they had believed and followed him for that period of time that he taught them and now he’s put to death so how could he have been the Christ?

They didn’t know... They were talking about going back to fishing. “What am I going to do?” Those who are fishermen, go back to that. Go back to some other job, whatever it might be. What are we going to do now? They were puzzled. They didn’t know what to do. Thankfully it wasn’t too long there and Christ revealed to them that he was alive.

And so now as he’s spending this period of time within that forty days with them they said, “Are you now? Now, you are spirit and you manifest yourself to us physically...” because you remember the occasion there when he just was in the middle of the room. The doors were locked. And here he is, he appears there and they were afraid at first when they saw this. You would be too if somebody popped up in the middle of the room and you were there talking. And right in the middle, kind of like this... What is it? Where was that when they would...? Is it Star Wars? Not Star Wars. Star Trek, there you go; “Beam me up, Scottie.” All of a sudden a body... And this is what he did; he manifested himself physically to them. He was spirit but he manifested himself right back into who he was, what he looked like, that body.

It wasn’t that body because that body was gone, but he manifested himself back into that body that looked like that exactly. That’s why he told Thomas, “Put your hands in my side. I’m the one. I’m the one that the soldier pierced his side,” as it says in John, “and out came water and blood on the earth.” Because he had to spill his blood to the earth. Incredible.

So, “At this time are you going to restore the kingdom? Now you’re a spirit, this has to be it!” In their minds... I can understand that kind of thinking. “Now you have incredible power. No one can kill you. No one can hurt you. You’re spirit. You’re a spirit being.” And the answer is no, not at this time. And no one has known, the different eras that came long, they didn’t...even John and different ones that even spoke of it as time went along. And finally God inspired Paul to write “Don’t think that he’s going to return until certain things take place.” And we know what that’s about, the Apostasy. And that didn’t happen until our time, nearly 1900 years later.

Will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, It is not for you to know the time or the seasons; it wasn’t time yet. So they’re going to have to live by something else. What? Faith. Not knowing when he’s going to come. Is it going to be in their lifetime? Because they still thought it was. They still thought it’d be in their lifetime until Paul wrote what he did, until John wrote the things that he wrote about an antichrist, about the son of perdition, as Paul wrote about, the man of sin. It is not for you to know the time or the seasons which the Father has put/appointed in His own power. So it’s in God’s time and God’s power to reveal what He will, and it wasn’t then. He made that very clear.

Verse 8—But you shall receive power (strength) after that the holy spirit has come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Now, this is prophetic. It wasn’t what they were going to fulfill because they didn’t go into all the earth by any measure. As a matter of fact, that didn’t happen until what’s referred to as this end-time and what God did through Mr. Armstrong and how The Plain Truth magazine went out to so many millions every month, and that telecast, and that broadcast that were the largest of any religious organization that’s ever been – far exceeding anything that anyone else has ever done that calls them self Christian. And that message went out just as God said it was and the gospel was preached in all the earth and to all the world, to the degree God wanted it to, “and then,” it said, “and then the end shall come.” Incredible!

Verse 9—And when he had spoken these things, while they were yet watching him he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. So at the end of that period of time this is what they witnessed. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel (angels) who also said, You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Joshua who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Incredible what we understand. God’s going to make it visible when he returns to this earth, the things that take place in this period of time that we live in.

Writing about some of that right now in this next post, which will probably be the last post ever posted, and it’s going to contain what people need in it. Because we haven’t had to put much in it for a long period of time, and gone on at different periods where things were given that we needed, and I truly believe this is probably going to be the last post when it comes out and it’s about him and it’s about his return and some of the things having to do with the things that God has given us in understanding timing and the like.

What an incredible thing to understand the things happening in the news right now, things we’ve wondered about for so long. I tell you, you read things about what they’re saying in Europe, what leaders are saying, and because of a decision made about Iran and pulling back they believe now they’re on their own and they’re pressing forward harder than ever before. And they were already pressing anyway before that decision was made. They were already pressing for their own military. The last thing, the last thing they had to establish with greater power than ever before and they’ve done it already. They have the power to, in essence, take over everything that NATO has established in Europe, a lot of nuclear weapons throughout Europe.

Sadly, there are a lot in Turkey because they’re a part of NATO.  There is something like 70 nuclear weapons on an airbase used by the U.S. there and he is not letting them go. When they had their skirmish a while back and all their problems there, he didn’t let them go. Now, there are some who claim that they got them out, that they were able to get them out. It’s not true. They’re still there. He has the power. He has the power to use them wherever he wants to and there’s prophecy about him and what he’s going to do against God’s people, speaking of physical Israel because of who they are as a people and what God prophesied about them. So we live in those times.

We live in those times that Germany is becoming stronger and stronger once again, taking a greater role, but will do it for different purposes this time than the mad man they had before. They’ll do it out what they think is necessity, what they have to do to protect themselves.

And the things that are happening, I hope you’re keeping up in some of those things, because you can’t get the news here. You have to search the internet for news, world news and what’s happening, what’s still being stirred up between India and Pakistan, that when the time is right the top is going to blow off that. And they both have... They themselves in those two countries have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth. They themselves have enough nuclear power to destroy mankind. And there’s a lot more in Russia and China and throughout Europe and on and on it goes, a time when man has the ability to annihilate himself. And we live in that time. And that’s what God foretold would take place, that if He didn’t intervene that’s what human beings would do, we would destroy ourselves. And thank God He’s going to cut that time short.

So we live in incredible times, in an end of an age, an end to this age of mankind’s 6,000 year rule on the earth when finally the very question the disciples asked him, “Are you at this time,” in essence, “going to fulfilling your role as the Messiah, the Christ?” Because it’s about God’s government.

Now, they thought it was just going to be for Israel. They didn’t grasp what is revealed later on, and what’s revealed more fully, and what’s been revealed to God’s Church through time here is that it’s about a world government for 1,000 years, when it talks about that in Revelation 20; that Joshua Christ is going to reign on the earth for 1,000 years. But you don’t hear people quoting those scriptures. You don’t hear traditional Christianity talking about his reign for a thousand years. Why not? It’s all there. It’s black and white.

We’re there. We’re at the doorstep. And so that very time that they asked him about is about to take place.

And so he told them to stay there, that they’d receive that power. And after when he had spoken these things, again, while they were yet watching...up...and the angel told them, in essence here, again, how he has gone there, that he’s going to come in like manner.  And so those are the kinds of things the earth is going to see because it’s made very clear in Revelation the world is going to see that power when it’s revealed.

Then it says, They returned, here (verse 12), Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey.

Verse 13—And when they had arrived they went up into the upper room, where they were staying, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphæus, Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. There’s a church that teaches he had no brothers, no family—incredible—Mary didn’t have any more children.

Acts 2:1—And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like fire, and it rested upon them, each of them. And so God manifested something that happened this one occasion, the beginning of it all, in a physical way so they could grasp more the magnitude of what was taking place on a spiritual plane, and so that we could as well. And so this that you can’t see, as Christ told Nicodemus, you can’t see God’s spirit. It’s like, how do you describe the wind and where it is and what it is? More so the spirit. And so this is the example it’s giving.

They experienced something physical, a mighty wind that came through where they were and that normally, obviously, wouldn’t be in a place like that, and then cloven tongues like fire, something they could see. Like the burning bush, didn’t burn up, didn’t hurt them, but it looked like fire. So they were able to see something that moved them to the core of their being, and they needed that at this time because they needed to be encouraged, they needed to be given help of encouragement and strength to go out and do the kind of job that they had before them. Because they knew that their lives were still in jeopardy, that anyone who was a friend of Christ, that different ones were looking for them. We know the story of Saul who became Paul later on, how that he persecuted them and by his command various ones were put to death, like Stephen was. Incredible! And so they needed help of encouragement and strength to go out and do what Christ had told them.

You know, we read through stories like this and we don’t think about what they were going through. This was not an easy thing. They feared for their lives. That’s why “The doors were shut,” when it talks about and Christ appeared in the middle of them, “for fear of the Jews,” some of the things they were doing. Doesn’t just mean shut, it was shut tight! No one could just get in easily. And on and on the story goes, of things they went through.

And so these cloven tongues rested upon each of them, and they were all filled with the holy spirit, and began to speak with other... It’s not “tongues.” People talk about “speaking in tongues,” and they speak all right and they have help, but it’s not from God. They don’t know where it comes from. And they speak things that are unintelligible. I’ve heard it. I’ve witnessed it. I’ve seen those things. And just a tad weird to say the least.

They began to speak with different languages. And so some have come along who have misinterpreted these things and think that you have to have this kind of experience, that you have to have this kind of feeling come over you in order to really receive God and God’s way of life, you have to be able to speak in what they call tongues, and there have to be people who can interpret it as well. And so sometimes they’ll have some, sometimes they don’t even bother with that one, they just skip that one. It’s just if you have the ability to speak in tongues and you have this experience... People who have that experience are some of the most difficult to reach on a spiritual plane. Known them. Because they know they’ve experienced something, and they have. They just don’t understand it wasn’t from God.

They don’t understand there are beings out here that you don’t want to mess around with that were left on this earth – Lucifer who became Satan and a third of the angelic realm who became demons. They’re real beings and they play these games. And don’t understand what they’re messing with. And they do have power. The do have power to mess with the human mind. When people lose control, when people don’t remember what they’re doing, when people begin to speak in something they don’t understand—later on sometimes sometimes they’ll tell you that they did understand and tell you something that was supposedly said by God or whatever. But so often that’s not the case. They’re out of it.

God’s spirit doesn’t control. God’s spirit doesn’t take control. He gives us free minds to receive it and to act upon, to live by what He reveals to us through the power of that holy spirit.

And so it says...they began to speak in, the word is, languages. It’s all about different languages because of all the people who came into Jerusalem who were from all over that part of the world, Jews who came down to observe as they did year by year the Holy Days. And so these people had gathered together from all these different regions when they came down for the days of Unleavened Bread and Passover period, and then when they came down for the Feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks as they would have known it. And then they spoke in these different languages as the spirit gave them power to speak. So, an incredible fulfillment of something taking place here, of speaking in these different languages, and it even goes on to talk about some of those different countries and where they were from, some of those different regions. That’s why it mentions them there, of all these different ones. And it was more a miracle, in essence, of what they were hearing because they weren’t speaking in all these different languages at the same time but people heard them. It was what they heard. It was in their own language and they marveled. They were hearing something.

So let’s look at some different languages, like Spanish, Italian or whatever, Russian. They weren’t there, but just saying that if people were gathered together and someone was speaking something, they were speaking what they understood and what they were given inspiration of, just like in preaching, or whatever it might be, about God, about Joshua Christ, which is what they were doing. And as they told some of these things these people were hearing in their own language. That’s what it’s talking about here if you read the entire story.

As it says here in verse 12 some even thought they were drunk. And how do you explain something happening like this? “Well, they were all drunk.” Well, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “That’s why we heard in our language, because they’re drunk?” Anyway. And so they heard these different things and it goes on to say, Because we can hear them speak in our own language the incredible works of God. “We can hear in our own tongue, our own language the incredible works of God.” And they were all amazed and greatly perplexed, saying one to another, What does all this mean? “How is this happening?” Yet others mocked saying, These men are full of new wine. Because they didn’t have an answer for it, and people who don’t want an answer, people who want to mock and make fun, people who don’t like what’s taking place they’ll twist and distort things, just like this here, just like things in the news are so twisted and distorted by all sides now-a-days.

Verse 14—But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, You men of Judea and all you who are dwelling here in Jerusalem, Let this be known unto you, and listen to my words: for these are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day, this being 9:00 am in the morning, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the latter days, said God, I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh. And so it’s referred to as the latter days because of God’s plan. 4,000 years had gone by and only 2,000 years remained before God’s Kingdom would come, so those are the latter days, of formation of the Church of God and what was going to take place and how God was going to begin working with people in a different way now than what He had in the previous 4,000 years.

And so this is what was spoken of by Joel, that in those days, at that time I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. What does that mean? It means there’s coming a time when people are going to be able to receive power from God and be able to speak of, talk of—that’s what this word means—inspired discussion, if you will, or talk about God. All of us are able to have that word in our life exhibited whenever we talk about the truth we see and understand, because it’s inspired by God. He’s given you the ability to understand a plan from the beginning of Passover to the Last Great Day. You understand God’s purpose and plan. You understand the resurrections. You understand all those things and the timing of some of that. And that’s all it’s about.

You can vocalize something with one another – we call it fellowship – that is blessed and inspired by God that you can’t have with others in the world around you. You can’t go out here and begin to talk to others about the Sabbath, about the Holy Days and the great plan of God and them having attention and listening to you with interest and acting upon it then, changing their life. Only God can draw people by the power of His holy spirit. So God has shown us all those things.

And so we have a unique ability because of what God has shown us through the power of His holy spirit that does dwell in us and we in Him that we can communicate these things. And that’s what they were experiencing here as they began to preach to others, as they began to talk, as some of this was discussed here. This is why the disciples, the apostles now, were able to do what they did. It’s because God gave them the ability to speak things of God, to speak the truth, to speak the things that Christ had given to them with understanding now, understanding they didn’t have a lot of before this, obviously, until the holy spirit came into them at this moment. This is when everything began to...

I tell you, to go from a period of time that you’ve heard things from the Christ, the Messiah, and then all of a sudden things that he said start flooding into your mind because of this power that you were experiencing in your mind and now you could see clearly what he meant by three days and now you understand more fully what he meant when he said “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up.” All these things began to flood into them just as when individuals are called and all of a sudden they begin to see things they’ve never seen before just by hearing about it. But God has to give that.

I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And so this isn’t some weird thing. It’s about how people are able to think and things they’re able to see. We’re able to see things and hope for the future.

We don’t grasp what it’s going to be like during the Millennium but we believe it. We look forward to that time and think about the things that mankind will be able to achieve once we work together in unity and oneness rather than competition and against each other, when we share knowledge and not try to make huge corporations by what we squander and keep to ourselves. But when all people have the same ideas, same knowledge about one God, about one Church and begin to work together in the same direction to honor God, that’s what God’s going to do when He pours out His spirit here in the Millennium. He hasn’t done that yet in the world. Only to a few that He’s called through time. Incredible, again, to see that, to understand that.

And it says, and on My servants and on My handmaids I will pour out in those days, whatever those days are, whatever period of time it is, whether it be at the Millennium or a beginning process. Because this was just the beginning. All people weren’t being given this ability yet. This is prophetic. Joel is prophetic; he’s a prophet. And what he was telling was far into the future, of things that were going to take place. And so Peter is inspired to tell them this is the beginning of that; that which Joel said is now starting, it’s coming to pass. “This is what you’re experiencing. This is what you’re seeing.” ...on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out in those days of My spirit; and they shall prophesy. Again, the word meaning “inspired speech/speaking.”

Verse 19—and I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, fire, vapour of smoke. See, that doesn’t happen until, well, pretty close now. That hasn’t happened yet. So that wasn’t being fulfilled at that time. This is prophetic. It was into the future. It started then, God began to pour out His spirit, began to work with a people, began to call more to become a part of a Church, the Church of God. Not the Lutheran. Not the Catholic. Not the Baptists. It’s after God’s name – the Church of God – because it belongs to God.

And so again here, it’s going to come to this time, what Joel is speaking of here. ...the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable Day of the LORD come. So when is that? It’s when Christ returns. And before that day happens says certain things are going to happen on this earth, certain things that are going to be seen on this earth, and they’re not pretty, and they are because of nuclear war and what happens in the atmosphere and what is shut off in some areas of the world when that much debris is cast up into the atmosphere and you have things like what’s called nuclear winters because the sun can’t reach the earth there is so much in the atmosphere.

I marvel. You see certain things when volcanoes have gone off and certain areas that the sky becomes a different color, the sun becomes a different color and you see through all that which is in the atmosphere six miles up. Awesome! Things that are carried around the world.

We lived in Houston when Mount St. Helens went off. Had dust on our car, or whatever that was from that volcano that far away – Houston, Texas. I don’t know if any of you had that in this area down through here, but if you remember that going off, Mount St. Helens when it went off, but we went out, sure enough, dust all of our cars. Came down from that out of the atmosphere, that far away. That’s nothing. That’s nothing compared to what’s coming. That’s miniscule.

And so these are all events that are prophesied indeed to shake mankind, to stir mankind, to sober mankind. Mankind hasn’t listened, as a whole, to God for 6,000 years. God says they will. God’s going to bring the earth to a point in time where they’ll begin to listen. But it’s not easy because we’re very physical, very carnal as human beings.

So again...and it shall come to pass, that whoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved. So it’s a matter of a relationship toward God, even for people who live on in the Millennium. For so many it’s going to be because they’re so humbled, they’re so brought down, and everything they believed in that can save them, even their own governments that can’t save them anymore, their own religions which haven’t been able to save them to that point in time, are just going to cry out, “If there is a God, please save us. Please deliver us from this. If you exist...”

Have you ever had that kind of a conversation with God? I did when I was first called, beginning, before that. “If you exist, please show yourself, please reveal it, because there is nothing here.”

And so again, God fulfilling Pentecost. What an awesome picture here. Gave the 10 Commandments on the day of Pentecost. Gave the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost to reveal to us that it’s only by that power that we can live His way of life. And that’s what He reveals through those things that are written by the apostles in scripture, that it takes God’s holy spirit to begin to bring this into subjection, to begin to deal with the selfish, carnal human mind, because we’re all selfish by nature. From birth we grow up selfish, we have the...

I marvel at what God gave to Mr. Armstrong, just explaining it very simply there’s the give way and the get. And we’re all about get. And it’s hard for human beings to come to that point where they can admit and acknowledge, “I am by nature selfish.” We are. We think about self first. It’d be very unnatural if we didn’t. And thankfully that’s what God’s all about – not of that which is physical but that which is spiritual, and gives us the help to begin to think in a different way, in a give way. Not give in order to get something back but just giving and learning from that that that’s where the fullness and joy of life really comes from. It’s about the give way, God’s way. It’s about love, agape, and that comes from God. It’s not a source. It’s not something mankind can work up.

You can’t work up God’s love in your mind, in your being. God has to help you. He has to help the thinking, of how you think about other people. And when you’re thinking wrong to repent and ask for the help to think right, to want to treat others in a right way, to be respectful towards others, not to get caught up in the drama of life, not to harbor wrong feelings towards others, not to say wrong things to others that are hurtful and cutting. We do that for our own protection, our own whatever it might be or... It’s hard to understand as human beings it’s to get; it’s to get something because we’re not getting what we want the way we want it and so we respond and we react in those ways that are wrong. And through time God reveals that to us, of how to change, how to have a different mind, a different thinking, how to have real happiness, real joy in life, not the artificial kind that human beings strive after. Because it’s artificial, it isn’t real.

And two people who become married and in time so often especially in this nation and many others as well they begin to drift apart. And what brought them together in the beginning and what they might have shared that was giving all of a sudden begins to change through time. And you think of all relationships that God has given to human beings, that is the one to where individuals should have the greatest of respect toward the other and have a greatest desire toward the other as well of giving and of wanting what is best for them above and beyond self.

Because if self is put first you won’t receive the kind of joy and fullness of life that that relationship could otherwise bring. But when you place them first in your mind in the sense of a relationship – not first above God, don’t misunderstand what I’m talking about – but that should be the closest of all physical relationships one ever experiences. And if you can’t live it there you can’t live it out there. Don’t deceive yourself. It has to be lived in that relationship first and foremost. And if one can begin to practice and live it there then they can begin to live it towards others in a body, in a Church, and then in the world around them, to have right thoughts and right feelings.

Just like Joshua the Christ had towards others when he said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” And they didn’t! When they were putting him to death, when they beat him, they didn’t know what they were... They didn’t know what they were caught up in. They didn’t understand the world and the way mankind is. He did and he said, “Father, forgive them.” How often can you deal with matters in life in the world around you, whether it be on the job, whether it be wherever it is, and come to that point. You may not come to it immediately but come to it, “They don’t know what they’re doing. They’re caught up in that. I don’t have to get caught up in that. I don’t have to be like that. I don’t have to act like that. That’s choice.” But so often we do find ourselves getting caught up in it.

Monday... Well, probably won’t be this Monday morning. You don’t have a holiday here, do you? Yeah, we do. Tuesday when you go to work see how that works. Put it to the test right away when you start dealing with this world. You’re driving down a freeway it can come at you quickly, catch you off guard quickly, but you know better. See, we know better but we find ourselves too often in life getting caught up in it. And it’s always there to remind us whatever things in this world that we experience like that, “This isn’t right and that needs to change and I need to repent of that,” whatever it is in any kind of relationships out here toward anyone else.

James 1:17—Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above. That’s why Christ said there is no one good but one, God. Good doesn’t naturally come out of us. Not if you really understand what good is. Selfishness isn’t good. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, in other words changing, neither shadow of turning. It’s a word that means a shifting as in the moving shade cast on an object.

Of His own will He has begotten us with the word of truth. Beautiful, because it’s logos. That’s what God... That’s how we’re begotten. We’re begotten of this logos, the logos that was made flesh, became the life of our Passover and our Messiah – is the same mind, is the same kind of thinking we can begin to experience in our lives. Not like him because that’s how he was born. We are able to be begotten of it once we are already the way we are, whatever age that is, 19, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, whatever age it is we come to that point of being baptized and receive the impregnation then, begettal, of God’s holy spirit. And then we can begin to see things that we never could see before.

So, we’re begotten. He has begotten us with the word of truth. That’s what the holy spirit is, the mind of God, the being of God, the logos, that which is communicated that becomes a part of our mind and our minds begin to be transformed. Separate and different in personalities and everything else, yes, but of that same thinking that helps us to become at one in unity and in agreement with the word of God. We agree with the law. We want to live a certain way toward others. We want to live in a right way toward God. We want to have a right relationship with others. We don’t want to get caught up in the drama of selfishness and evil. Because it’s evil, it truly is. What is good and what is right comes from God and He shows us how to live that and experience that and then to have real joy of life, real joy, real fullness of life, real happiness. Not something that’s short-lived.

Of His own will He has begotten us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His, and the word means, not creatures, creation. The word in the Greek is creation. It’s a part of God’s creation. It’s a part of what God is creating as it talks about in Romans 12, of the transforming of the mind, to where this very mind begins to be transformed to think differently. And so we grow on a spiritual plane, we grow in our thinking and coming into greater unity and oneness with the Great God of this universe and with His Son.

And so we’re begotten by this holy spirit, by the logos, by the word of God, by what He communicates to us in our minds that we’re able to see and grasp. And this is speaking to the Church because...and that’s the early...talking about the Church that was beginning here, that had started, and this was some time later, obviously, by the time James wrote and who he wrote to. But it’s still to the Church of Ephesus, the first Church era at that particular time and every Church era that’s come along has lived by this truth and understanding. When it says we are to become then “a kind of firstfruits.” Because we understand what the firstfruits means. It’s about the first phase of God’s plan and those in the first 6,000 years who are called out of that, a specific number of individuals, as a matter of fact, an exact number that God gave that He would call out of that first 6,000 years to rule and reign with His Son when he returns to this earth as the King of kings. Awesome!

The world would just laugh at that and make fun of it and mock it, but it’s true. They can’t stop it.

And so here is a “kind of firstfruits.” Do you know what “kind” is used as in scripture so often? Cattle after the cattle kind. Different kinds. And we’re made after the God kind. That’s what the firstfruits are. Elohim. God’s Family. Human beings don’t understand why they were created. They don’t understand that God has a plan for a family, a family that is called God, Elohim, the God Family. They think they’re going to be changed and wafting around on a cloud or out fishing for the rest of eternity, or whatever it is. And that’s not what God plans for mankind. We’re to be a part of a family and to continue on doing work in this universe and beyond. Awesome!

Then we come to the book of Revelation. Chapter 1, you know, it introduces here what God gave to Joshua Christ (I’m going to get this) to give to John, and then John witnessed various things here of what he saw, and he wrote about those things when he was in prison for that period of time on the Isle of Patmos. And these are the last things then recorded God gave as far as scripture is concerned.

Then we come to Revelation 4. We’re going to take some time and read through a few of these just to catch up here with part of the story flow. Because before this then it...the instruction is given to seven eras of the Church, that which started on Pentecost all the way up toward the end here of what’s taking place in the Apostasy, in the great falling away of God’s own Church and what we’ve experienced, the very sign that God said we would know this is the end-time, when that event takes place.

We’ve experienced that in 1994. Awesome. And there has been a specific type of countdown that’s continued ever since that moment.

Revelation 4:1 it says, After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were a trumpet speaking to me; which said, Come up here and I will show you things which must come to pass after this. Now, not literally going there but there is that which he envisioned and which he saw and which was communicated to him that was given to him. And he’s being shown here what was going to come hereafter.

So, please understand that all this given in Revelation is about the Church, the first seven eras of the Church, or all seven eras of the Church, and then that which God points to as the Day of the LORD. That’s what it’s all about.

It says, And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Then it describes here, in essence here, the glory of God is described and that which He has created in a spirit realm in heaven, and all to the honor of God, of Almighty God.

Verse 9 it goes on to say, And when those, says here “creatures,” it’s angelic beings gave glory and honour and thanks to Him who sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever. See, there’s only one who has lived forever and ever, Almighty God, the Ever Living Self-Existing God. ...the twenty four elders fell down before Him who sat on the throne, and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O LORD, to receive glory and honour and power: for You have created all things. Isn’t that amazing? Man won’t acknowledge that. Man won’t, amazing, won’t agree to that. They’d rather believe something else. He created everything, a spirit realm, spirit beings, a physical universe that mankind can’t even find the farthest reaches of yet. I think its 13.5 billion light years, but every time they get out there a little farther, oh, there’s more out there. Where does it end?

You are worthy, O LORD, to receive honor and glory and power: for You have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created. So at this point here, again, the stage is set for the one whom God has placed before Him, speaking of Joshua the Christ, to fulfill His will and His Kingdom that’s to come, what leads up to, what’s referred to as the Day of the LORD.

Chapter 5:1—And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book/scroll written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to undo the seals of it? And no one in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look within. And I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Do not weep: for behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, descended from David, the Messiah, has prevailed to open the book, and to undo the seven seals of it.

Verse 7—And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four angelic beings and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, the word is “incense,” which are the prayers of the saints. So even again there within the temple when they did the incense it’s all symbolic of something that would happen in time, the prayers of God’s people going up before God that God received with great pleasure and joy, fullness, of what His people were doing, a relationship they desired to have and a way of life they desired to live.

And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals of it: for you were slain, and have redeemed them, as it is, to God by your blood out of every kindred, every family and tribe, in other words. And so here it’s talking about what Christ is fulfilling as being the Passover. ...and of every tongue, every language, in other words, and people, and nations. So in time this is exactly what takes place. Every human being in time who will listen to God and be given this time and opportunity in their life to receive the Passover, when God gives them that time, then these are the ones, if they’ll listen and if they yield themselves to the process will be able to be saved.

...and you have made them unto our God kings and priests. And the word is “they”; and they shall reign on the earth. Now, it’s about “them” as well, what they were... what John and different ones in the Church, but this is, again, the proper translation of what it’s actually saying here in the Greek language. “And they shall reign on the earth,” speaking of those that are going to be spoken of here in a moment.

Chapter 7 if you go ahead there. Because, again, the means by which God fulfils Pentecost is being revealed, is revealed in these scriptures. One of the last great things...one of the last great fulfillments of Pentecost is about to take place.

Verse 1 of Chapter 7— And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that the wind would not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending out of the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea... And we’ve talked about this, what this is all about, those first four angels and what takes place in those first...because of the first four Trumpets that were blown, what’s going to take place on this earth, what’s going to take place primarily with this nation and some others as well, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and to eastern parts of Eastern Europe.

And so it’s talking about some of these things. It says, so these are given to hurt the earth and the sea. So there’s certain things that they can’t do until something else happens. Saying (verse 3) Do not  hurt the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Again, beautiful how God describes this. There is a certain sealing that has to be fulfilled before this can take place, and we’re almost to the end of it; almost to the end of the exact number God said He would save to return with His Son.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. In other words, they’re going to carry those names. Just as the word “Israel” is a name that God uses to describe all of them. Because, again, it’s like we’ve talked about the word “Joshua” and what it really means. It has meaning in it as far as God is concerned and what God is doing with mankind. It’s not about a physical Israel at all.

Then verses 5 through 8 mention the names of each group of twelve thousand that’s named after a specific tribe of Israel.

Then on down in verse 9 it says, After this I beheld, and, behold, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations, and families, and people, and tongues, or languages, I should say, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palms in their hands. Again, symbolic here of that which is without sin, that which has been cleansed completely and entirely, what Jesus Christ, Joshua the Christ (I’ll tell you...) is going to do with all the Church through time here as a Passover.

...and he cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood before the throne and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell down before the throne on their faces and worshipped God saying, Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power, and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. Because it’s about the Kingdom of God. It’s about His power, the controversy of Zion to bring about His family, to bring about the first phase of His Kingdom to reign on this earth.

Verse 13—And one of the elders answered saying unto me, Who are these who are arrayed in white robes? And from where did they come? So mankind hasn’t been able to number them. We wouldn’t be able to number them. We don’t know the different ones with whom God worked that aren’t even recorded in scripture whether it be in the Old Testament or the New. But we know the number because God does, because God’s been doing the calling and the working with them from the beginning of Abel on up to this present time.

And I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, These are they who came out of great tribulation, meaning everyone’s who ever called has to go through times of trial and hardship to live a way of life that the world doesn’t accept, and a way of life that’s so often is very offensive to the world around it because as a whole, in that respect, we don’t compromise. We keep the Sabbath day. We keep the Holy Days. We go to our employers and tell them we have to have a certain time off in the fall to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. Or we go and tell them about other Holy Days that land in the middle of the week, “I can’t be here on Tuesday because...” or whatever it might be. And that isn’t always warmly received. Family members oftentimes don’t like it. “Well, what are you, a Jew?” And all the things that come up and they don’t understand. They don’t understand.

And so it says, all these came out of great tribulation. They have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. So it’s a transformation, a change and that cleansing that takes place in life because of our Passover. Because we have sin, but we’re only forgiven of it through our Christ, our Passover.

Verse 15—Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. What an incredible thing, “in His temple,” His family. The temple of God is about His family, Christ being the Chief Cornerstone, and then all those who were added to it finally here on the day of Pentecost when the wave loaves have been waved before God and those who represent those wave loaves actually come into being and are resurrected before, and then stand above the Mount of Olives the same day as Joshua the Christ.

And He who sets on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, because they’re not physical. They’re spirit beings. They’re in God’s family. ...and neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. Not physical! This is all spiritual. It’s about life. It’s about eternal life. It’s about life everlasting that God gives and what it means to be in that spirit family finally, to be in the temple of God, to be where God has planned for man to be from the very beginning. We have to go through a process of being carnal, selfish human beings so when the time comes we can choose and make a choice between a way we’ve been living and a way we see in the world or God’s way. Choices once He reveals that to us.

...and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Because as long as we’re in these physical bodies there will be tears, because we’re physical.

Revelation 14:1—And I looked, and behold, a Lamb stood on the mount Zion. We understands that’s what the Kingdom of God’s name is, what it represents, Mount Zion, Jerusalem, the City of Peace, the City whose builder and maker is God. All these scriptures that are used throughout the Bible to describe the same thing. ...and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads. Why doesn’t the world teach such things? Why doesn’t the world of traditional Christianity teach such things about a Lamb whose going to stand on Mount Zion with 144,000 who have been redeemed from the earth literally for over 6,000 years?

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers playing on their harps: and they sang as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no one could learn that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth. Over 6,000 years, God’s family, the first phase of God’s family, Pentecost revealed, fulfilled.

Verse 4—These are they who are not defiled with women; for they have become virgins. It’s talking about that which is on a spiritual plane, not with that which is in the world, false religions and so forth. That gives that example there then because of what God and Christ have done with them in their lives and their choices that they have made. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits. See, Christ was referred to as the firstfruits, the first of the firstfruits, and now the rest, the 144,000 who come with him. ...being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. The two wave loaves. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God. In other words, fully received, the wave loaves, into the family of God, given spirit life.

I’m not going to go on over to Revelation 19 and 20 which talks about Christ returning as the King of kings and of those who reign with him, very specifically so in Chapter 20 where it says “and they reign with him for a thousand years.” Very few believe that and we’re about to see its fulfillment.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1