No. 15 - SEVEN POINTS ON PENTECOST By: Randall Ricker Sunday, May 19, 2002 Pentecost, A.M. Service Good morning everybody. God’s festivals, of course, outline His wonderful plan for salvation, the first festival being Passover. It reminds us that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins so we can be reconciled to God the Father. Then the second festival, the Days of Unleavened Bread, teaches us that we must be putting sin out of our lives. Now the third festival is Pentecost, which is today. Pentecost pictures the firstfruits of salvation and what they are doing. Let’s study seven points on Pentecost. Point #1: Pentecost is the holy day with four names. Let’s turn to Exodus chapter 23, verse 16. This is a parallel chapter, in part anyway, to Leviticus 23 where all of the festivals are listed. Verse 16: “‘and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field…’” So it is called the Feast of Harvest and it is also called Firstfruits you noticed. Let’s turn to Numbers 28, verse 26: There is another name here. “‘Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.’” So here again we have it called the Firstfruits but also the Feast of Weeks. In the New Testament, which we will be turning to later, it is also called Pentecost, which means in Greek “fiftieth.” So that is how we get the name for this holy day, in fact all four names for this holy day. Point #2: The Church has the opportunity to be the firstfruits. What does firstfruits mean? Firstfruits is that which is harvested first. Turn to James chapter 1, verse 18: “Of His own will He brought us forth...” A better translation is in the Authorized Version: He “begat us”. “...by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” Here we are being called the firstfruits. I say the Authorized Version “begat us” is a better translation because here it says “brought us forth” as if maybe the process was complete and, of course, it is not. We are “begotten” now to be born later at a resurrection. We can learn more about the firstfruits and our opportunity to be firstfruits if we turn way back to Leviticus 23, where again all the holy days and festivals are listed. It talks about the offering that is given on the Feast of Firstfruits. We will skip down to verse 15 of Leviticus 23: “‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.’” Verse 17: “‘You shall bring from your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Eternal.’” So we have two wave loaves being offered on this day. What do they mean? Long ago those in the Church figured out basically what this does mean. For one thing you see that they are leavened. On the previous set of holy days which we observed leavening pictured sin. So here we have something that is leavened which means it is picturing something that still has sin in it. Let’s turn to Numbers chapter 8. We can see other places where a wave offering is given to help us understand better what this wave offering of two loaves was. Numbers 8, verse 11: “‘And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Eternal, as though a wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may perform the work of the Lord.’” Aaron is offering the Levites as if he was offering a wave offering, which we were just talking about with the wave offering of a couple of loaves. Verse 12: “‘Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the young bulls, and you shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the Lord, to make atonement for the Levites. And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them as though a wave offering to the Eternal. Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.’” So a wave offering is an offering that is used to indicate that something is being separated for God. So these two loaves that are being waved on the Feast of Pentecost indicates something being separated for God. Who might this be, what might this be? We might as well say “who might it be” because it refers to people and there is a spiritual intent here. Turn to I Peter chapter 1. These wave loaves having referred to “things separated for God,” well, what is separated for God? It is those who have God’s Holy Spirit already who have been begotten by His Holy Spirit. If you turn to I Peter 1, verse 10 we find that there are some in the Old Testament times who had God’s Holy Spirit. I Peter 1, verse 10: “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.” You see these prophets had God’s Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the Father which is the Holy Spirit. It was in them at that time. So it is indicating that these are people who had God’s Holy Spirit, and we believe that they are represented by one of the wave loaves. Who is the other one? Turn to I Peter 2. Often times when the apostles were writing these epistles to people and saying “you” they were addressing the people they were writing to. But who were they writing to? They were writing to the Church. Starting in I Peter 2, verse 5: “...You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Skip down to verse 9: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light...” Yes, we are God’s own special people. We are special. We are set apart. So this is why we are represented by one of those wave loaves on the Feast of Pentecost. God’s wave loaves on the Feast of Pentecost represent the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament Christians. Who are the Christians? What is the definition of a Christian? Turn to Romans chapter 8. This chapter is often called the “Holy Spirit chapter.” There is so much about God’s Holy Spirit here but we will only read a very small portion of it. Romans 8, verse 9: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” That which is Christ’s is a Christian. If the person does not have God’s Holy Spirit, he is not a Christian. That is what this is defining here. Go on to verse 14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Yes, a Christian is to be led by the Holy Spirit and not just possess it. We are supposed to be led by God’s Holy Spirit. So being a firstfruit is a reminder of a step in God’s plan, that God’s people are the firstfruits. They are the first to be offered salvation. Back to I Peter, but this time let’s go to chapter 4. I Peter 4, verse 17: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” The Church is in a very special position right now, being judged first and first to be offered salvation. The world will have their opportunity a little bit later. We are being judged in how well we are preparing for the kingdom of God. Pentecost pictures the Church being called and trained to prepare for the time when God opens salvation to the world. Point #3: Most of the world is presently cut off from salvation. Let’s go way back to Genesis, chapter 2 where we have the account of the two trees in the garden of Eden. Verse 8: “The Eternal God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Eternal God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Verse 16: “And the Eternal God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” So here we have two trees and God inviting Adam and Eve to eat of all the trees except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What did they do? Let’s go on to Genesis chapter 3, verse 1: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Eternal God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’” And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.” So they took to themselves the knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong. Instead of depending on God to determine what is right and wrong by His law, they chose it themselves. Adam lost the opportunity that he had to replace Satan as ruler of this earth. He was obeying Satan. Genesis chapter 3, verse 16: “To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’ Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, “you shall not eat of it:” Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.’” As if this was not enough punishment, let’s look at Verse 22: “Then the Eternal God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ - therefore the Eternal God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” Their punishment included being cut off from salvation until Christ could come and qualify and pay the penalty. Mankind in general is not being judged. They will have their opportunity later. Point #4: God calls only a few right now. As I mentioned a few prophets had God’s Holy Spirit but most have been cut off from salvation for the last 6,000 years. Ancient Israel had the law but they could not even keep that law in the letter, much less in the spirit, as Christ explained in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, Israel and Judah went into captivity primarily for idolatry and Sabbath breaking. They proved that without God’s Holy Spirit man is helpless and cannot keep God’s law. If there is no love of God in them, they are not righteous. But going to Christ’s time, He talks more about how only a few are called now. Turn to Mark chapter 4. This is right after Jesus Christ had given the parable of the sower and the seed. Mark 4, verse 10: “But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, ‘To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that “Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.”’” He was telling these parables not to illustrate but actually to hide the meaning, because for these people their time had simply not come yet. Let’s go on to verse 33: “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” So He gave a number of parables for the public but did not explain it to them. He explained it to the disciples who had that time were being called. In John chapter 6 we have a frequently used verse in the Church of God. John chapter 6, verse 44: “‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.’” It is essentially repeated in verse 65: “And He said, ‘Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.’” The Church does not try to convert people. It just provides the gospel message. We do not try to convert our relatives. Those of us who have tried know that does not work. If God is not working with them, they are not going to understand. They are not going to be interested. In fact, they may even be hostile to someone trying to convert them. If God wanted everyone to understand right now, they would. It is that simple. This is not the only time when there was only a small number of people understanding the gospel and the truth of God. Turn to Acts chapter 1, verse 15. This is just after Jesus Christ had gone to heaven and, in fact, right before the Feast of Pentecost in 31 A.D. “And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty)...” Now imagine all of these thousands of people heard Jesus Christ preach, saw the miracle of the loaves and fishes and all of the other miracles. They even heard John the Baptist preach. Yet there were only a hundred and twenty disciples at this point! Not everyone was being called. Turn to John chapter 15. For those who have been called it does not mean that life is necessarily easy. In fact, it can be quite difficult at times. John chapter 15, verse 18: “‘If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.’” So what happened was there would be a minority that would accept the truth of God. Others often persecuted the true Church. That is the way it has continued for the last nearly 2,000 years and even into the present now, just showing that not everyone has been called. And as we know from history, the true Church eventually got people into it who adopted concepts from false religions. Turn to John chapter 18, verse 36. This is when Jesus Christ was on trial for His life. “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’” See Jesus Christ realized and was telling Pilate and others that His kingdom was not of that time. It was to come later. It was not of that age. He was not calling everybody at that time. There is a time when He will be calling everyone. Turn to Revelation chapter 7. This is a time in the future, after the 144,000 have already been sealed. Revelation chapter 7, verse 9: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” It talks about a great multitude and I looked up the words: “A great multitude which no one could number.” I have actually gone through the exercise. It really does mean a great multitude which no one can number. There is nothing subtle about that saying it is just a few people. It is actually a lot of people. To be a great multitude which no one can number, you can look at some of the numbers in the Bible for comparison. Earlier in this chapter it talks about a 144,000 so it certainly has to be many times greater than 144,000. In fact the largest number that I remember seeing in the Bible is 200,000,000. Now if this was anything less than 200,000,000 people, I think God would have given us the number. Which means, this has to be a lot more than 200,000,000 people in this great innumerable multitude and maybe several times 200,000,000! We could be talking about billions of people at this point! Let’s not minimize what God can do. This great innumerable multitude can be great and indeed innumerable. That is when they will have their opportunity in this near future time. Some have thought at times that if we say that there is a great innumerable multitude, they will not have to repent and they will just be saved without repentance. No, that is not true. They are going to have to go through repentance. They are going to have to repent and believe the gospel just as all of us did, and be baptized, in fact. They will have to go through the same process but they just have not been called yet. Their time will come in just a little while. Point #5: The New Testament Church began on Pentecost. Let’s look at Luke chapter 24. This was all planned out by God. Luke 24, verse 49: “‘Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.’” Tarry is an old English word which means wait. So God had this planned out and He was giving the apostles instructions already. Turn to Acts chapter 1, verse 4: “And being assembled together with them, He...” (referring to Jesus Christ) “...commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” Going on to verse 8: “‘But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’” Finally in Acts chapter 2 is where we read about Pentecost 31 A.D. when they were receiving the power. Acts 2, verse 1: “Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Here tongues refers to other languages. So we have a couple of signs here: the sound of a mighty rushing wind (wind at times represents God’s Holy Spirit) and it talks about tongues as of fire (fire represents God’s Holy Spirit). Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. No one thinks that there was actually fire burning on top of their heads. I think we all realize this was symbolic of something. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 29: “For our God is a consuming fire.” Fire representing God in this case. Turn to Revelation chapter 1, verse 13. This is the Apostle John’s vision. “...and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.” In the New Testament the Son of Man refers to Jesus Christ. Verse 14: “His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters.” This is showing us what Christ looks like in His glorified condition, mentioning that He has eyes like a flame of fire. Revelation 2, verse 18: “‘And to the angel of the Church in Thyatira write, “These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass.”’” Again fire being associated with God Himself. I should have told you to keep your finger in Acts chapter 2. We want to go back there just for a moment. We want to go back to the account of Pentecost in 31 A.D. Acts 2, verse 41: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.” Verse 46: “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved.” So this really was the Church being formed on this day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. Pentecost is a memorial of the founding of the Church and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Today is the 1,971st anniversary of the founding of the Church! What is the Church? Turn to I Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12. When we are part of a large, or even small, organization, at times we tend to think of the Church as our little organization. We think of it as our congregation, for example, or our organization with a headquarters or home office somewhere; and we need to think more broadly than that. The Church really is a body and has no corporate boundaries to it. I Corinthians 12, verse 12: “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized...” (or immersed) “...into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” Yes, there are many members to the body and we are not baptized into a particular corporation or anything of the kind. We are baptized into the Church of God, the body of Christ. We have to remember that and keep that broad view of what the body of Christ is. There are small congregations and some individuals here and there who do not have anyone to fellowship with. Point #6: What the Church should be doing. Let’s turn to Revelation 19, a time in the future that we are greatly looking forward to. It will be a time of joy and happiness for us. Revelation 19, verse 6: “And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, ‘Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine line, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”’ And he said to me, ‘These are the true sayings of God.’” The marriage supper of the Lamb will be a great time! We all want to be there. It says the bride has made herself ready. We look at the Church, the Church being the bride of Christ, but the Church is not ready yet, is it? Some are totally rejecting God’s truth that they may have once had. Others are rejecting portions of God’s truth. Some groups are criticizing each other and attacking each other. That does not sound like a bride that is ready for the return of Christ to marry Him, does it? We are a royal priesthood now and there are some things we should be doing. Turn to Malachi chapter 2 and let’s look at some of the duties of a priest. We are the priesthood and what should we be doing? Malachi chapter 2, verse 7: “‘For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.’” If he has knowledge and people are coming to him for that knowledge, he is a messenger. Priests should be teaching. Of course, we will be teaching in the world tomorrow but there are things we should be doing to teach now. Back to Ezekiel chapter 44, verse 23. Here they are talking about priests again. “‘And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.’” Here we are not just talking about physical uncleanliness but we are talking about spiritual uncleanliness and what is holy and unholy. God’s way is holy. Priests should be teaching God’s way. There is more than teaching. Go on to verse 29. “‘They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering; every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs.’” It is talking about offerings. They are not just talking about offerings that the priests would offer for themselves, which they could do and they did in the past, of course. But the priest was the one who made the offering for the people. A man would come to the priest with whatever type of offering it was and then the priest would make that offering. In a sense, the priest was interceding for the person by making that offering for him. So if we are spiritual priests, we should be interceding for other people too! In fact, in the New Testament in I Timothy we do have clear instruction on intercession. Intercession is going to God on behalf of other people for whatever the reason may be. Turn to I Timothy 2, verse 1: “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, INTERCESSIONS, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior...” We are to be interceding for others, interceding for our nation and interceding for individuals. If we do not care enough about people to intercede for them now, how could we possibly rule and teach in love in the millennium? It does not make sense. We need to have that out-going concern where we are just aching to intercede for people every time we see the need and opportunity. Speaking of kings and priests, turn to Revelation chapter 5. This will be our duty in the millennium. Revelation chapter 5, verse 10: “‘...And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’” This shows us that we are to be kings and priests. A king is a ruler and a priest is a teacher and an intercessor. It says we reign on the earth which helps us understand our true reward. Go on to Revelation chapter 20, verse 4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Verse 5: “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” The firstfruits will be part of that first resurrection. “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” There it is mentioned priests and also reigning, reigning as kings. Some think that part of the duty of the Church right now is to be giving a very stern warning to the world, and in particular to modern Israel. I believe there was a time for that warning in the past, but things have happened since then. Let’s turn to Malachi chapter 3, verse 1: “‘Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord , whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Now this verse is dual. For one thing this messenger refers to John the Baptist. Keep your finger in Malachi if you would and turn to Matthew 11, verse 10: “‘For this is he of whom it is written: “Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”’” Here it is quoting Malachi 3:1. Matthew 11, verse 11: “‘Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come, he who has ears to hear, let him hear!’” So it is first talking about John the Baptist fulfilling that role as a messenger and in fact as Elijah to come, and we will get to that. But there is a second portion of duality of this messenger coming before Christ. Turn to Matthew chapter 17 before we get back to Malachi. Here is where Christ had just given a vision to some of His disciples. The vision included Elijah. Matthew 17, verse 10: “And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Elijah truly is coming first and will restore all things.’” A better translation here is “Elijah truly shall come first,” which is in the Authorized Version. In the Interlinear Version it is translated “Elijah comes first.” In other words, both implying a future coming and restoration of all things. Verse 12: “‘But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” But saying “Elijah shall come first” implies that there is a duality here. John the Baptist and someone else coming in that role in the future. Now let’s go back to Malachi 3. It is talking about the duality. We realize that in Malachi 3:1 it states, “‘...the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple...’” In the Old Testament times there was a physical temple but now there is a spiritual temple being built, the Church being the spiritual temple. So the Lord, Christ, is going to be coming to that spiritual temple, which is the Church, us. If you read more in Malachi 3, you find that a lot of this has to refer to a future time. Starting in verse 2: “‘But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.’” As we are reading through this, think of how that did not really apply to Christ’s first coming. He came very quietly, peacefully. He did not shake up the whole world at that time. Verse 4: “‘Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years. And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, against adulterers, against perjurers, against those who exploit wage earners and widows and the fatherless, and against those who turn away an alien - because they do not fear Me,’ says the Eternal of hosts.” There will be quite a different set of events associated with the second coming of Christ so that is why we believe that this messenger is dual: John the Baptist in the past and someone in the future coming right before the return of Jesus Christ. Now who was that person? Remember we talked about John the Baptist restoring all things. Well, he did not restore very much. That would be referring to a future person. Who restored all things? Those of us in the Church of God believe that Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong restored all things. He began his work in 1934 and died in 1986. We can list 18 very significant major doctrines that he restored. I will not go through them all but some of them include: who and what is God, what is man, what is the purpose of man, what do the holy days mean (why are we here today for example on Pentecost), the truth about the identity of modern Israel in prophecy being the United States and Britain primarily as well as other nations? The list goes on and on. He restored all of these things. Turn to Malachi chapter 4, verse 4 to read more about this end time Elijah. “‘Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Eternal. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.’” That word “curse” meaning utter destruction. So we believe that Herbert W. Armstrong did turn the hearts of the father to the children and children to the father as John the Baptist did. Remember this was prophesied of John the Baptist. If you look back you might ask, well how did he do that? He did it by bringing people to repentance. In the time of Herbert W. Armstrong well over 100,000 people came to repentance. The number may have been 200,000 because over the years people came into the Church, repented and were baptized and some died. Some died before he did. In the early 1990’s there were up to l50,000 people including perspective members and children who were associated with the Church and probably more than that. If Mr. Armstrong was not the Elijah, then the Church would have to lose the truth all over again and someone else would have to come later in the future and restore even more than Mr. Armstrong did! Does that seem likely? I do not think so. A lot of arguments are given as to why Mr. Armstrong should not be the Elijah. Some of them say it has been too long since the time he died until the second coming of Christ. In Malachi 4:5 it says, “‘I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.’” It does not say how long before does it? What if there were 30 years from the time Mr. Armstrong died until Christ returns? I am not saying there will be, necessarily, but what if there were? Thirty years out of six thousand is a half of a per cent of the time that man has been on the earth! In other words, 99.5 per cent of the time of mankind would have passed when Mr. Armstrong died, then just that little half per cent remains until Christ comes. The argument that people use that says it has been too long since his death just does not hold water. Another argument people use is that very few people knew about Mr. Armstrong. How could he be the end time Elijah? They say that all of Israel knew about the original Elijah, and all of Judah knew about John the Baptist who was the first to come in the spirit and power of Elijah. Not too many people knew about Mr. Herbert Armstrong people say. They say he may have reached tens of millions of people but there are billions of people on earth. What I say is we need to look at this spiritually. Virtually all of spiritual Israel, the Church, knew of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. Just as all of physical Israel knew about the original Elijah, virtually all of spiritual Israel knew about Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. Again, that argument is not valid. Another argument they say is Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong worked no miracles, as the original Elijah did. He called down fire and did a number of things. But remember that John the Baptist who came in the spirit and power of Elijah had no miracles recorded for him either. But there is one thing more important though, that is, there were miracles associated with Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. The miracle of conversion, the greatest miracle of all, changing the human mind took place over and over. He was used as an instrument of God to bring people to repentance. Let’s discuss another argument they have. Turn to Acts 3, verse 19: “‘Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His prophets since the world began.’” Now people say, well wait a minute, if it is the restoration of all things that Christ is to be doing, they then say why do you say that Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong restored all things? For one thing, it is stated in Matthew 17:11 that the Elijah was to restore all things, but the other is to remember that Christ restores these things after the day of the Lord begins. The Bible refers to the end time Elijah (Mr. Armstrong) as restoring all things before the day of the Lord. There are two different issues. Why is this important that Mr. Armstrong be the end time Elijah? Of course, one of the things is that then we value the truth that has been restored and realize he did restore this truth. There is something even more important than that because in Malachi 4, verse 6 it says, “‘And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.’” As I mentioned that means “utter destruction.” Now if Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong or anyone else had been able to fulfill that role as the end time Elijah, the utter destruction does not have to come! This is why we believe that the utter destruction described in the Bible physically does not now have to come. People were led to repentance and so God does not have to do all of that to the world. We do not have to have 90% of modern Israel being destroyed and possibly that per cent of the whole world being destroyed. Instead, prophecy takes a different direction. Now we can look at the meaning of those end time prophecies spiritually to understand what is really going to happen. The Church still needs to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the world in order to prepare for the innumerable multitude that I mentioned a little bit earlier. Point #7: The Church is empowered by the Holy Spirit. As we prepare for the kingdom of God, we need to have God’s Holy Spirit. We need to be using it in order to prepare. Let’s turn to John 14, verse 10. This is where Christ was giving instructions to His disciples after that last Passover with them before He died. “‘Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.’” You see the Father dwelt in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Go on to verse 16: “‘And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that it may abide with you forever...’” Who is that helper? Verse 26: “‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.’” We read earlier about having God’s Holy Spirit in us in Romans chapter 8 where we read the definition of a Christian. We will not go back there right now. We have the Holy Spirit in us and it is leading us. We are to be yielding to God’s Holy Spirit. We are to be helping God accomplish His purpose in us. We can read about the kind of mind we are to be having in Philippians 2, verse 5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus...” We can learn a little bit more about that mind of Christ just by going up a couple of verses to verse 3: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Yes, we should truly have out-going concern. The Holy Spirit gives us power to help us live just as Christ did. Turn to Acts chapter 5. In fact it starts a bit of a cycle if you think about it that way. Acts 5, verse 32: “‘And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.’” See as we obey God, He gives us more of His Holy Spirit, which gives us more power to obey more. It is a cycle toward developing God’s holy righteous character. It helps us develop more and more of that character. Turn to Zechariah chapter 4, verse 6 where again it shows us we are not doing this all on our own. It takes effort. We talked about that a lot during the Days of Unleavened Bread, but we do have a lot of help too. Zechariah 4:6 talks a very important principle: “So he answered and said to me: ‘This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” We are to be doing the work of God, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, helping prepare the body, helping prepare ourselves by developing God’s holy righteous character all by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. One of the things that Pentecost teaches us is that we are being trained to be kings and priests. Now the next step in the plan of God is the return of Christ and the restoration of His government on the earth! We are going to rule and teach under that government! Now the return of Christ is pictured by the fourth festival, the Feast of Trumpets, which is on the first day of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. On the calendar that most of us in the world use, it will be on September 7, 2002, and we will learn more about it on that day!