The Day of Pentecost, the fiftieth day, was a prophetic fulfillment of Old Testament feasts, signifying the commencement of the harvest and a new meal offering. It highlights that Christ's death fulfilled the Passover, and His resurrection fulfilled the waving of the firstfruits, both occurring on the first day of the week. The sermon emphasizes that Christ's ascension to the right hand of God, not the disciples' prayers, was the prerequisite for the Holy Spirit's coming on Pentecost, signifying Christ's exaltation and victory over darkness. The message concludes by applying Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it," to Christ's glorious ascension, urging believers to rejoice in this great act and to recognize Christ as their representative in glory.
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We hope to have him with us. He'll be with us each night this week through Friday night. And it's my privilege to turn the meeting over to him now, Brother J.M. Davies. And shall we turn together to the Book of the Acts, Chapter Two. This morning we were considering together the first and the second chapters, noticing how in chapter one, Luke the Doctor, the writer of the Book of the Acts, he capitulates the great basic facts, the historical facts of the Gospel.
the death and sufferings of Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and then the ascension of Christ and His coming again in glory. And we saw in chapter two how these are the main subjects that the Apostle Peter emphasized in that message which brought about such tremendous results on the day of Pentecost. It is an example for all who would preach the gospel.
He preached Christ and him crucified. He emphasized the great fact. connected with the death and the resurrection and the exaltation of Christ, and in connection with His coming again in power. In the book of the Acts, the coming again of our Lord is spoken of, of course, in the same way as it is in the Gospels by Matthew and by Mark and Luke. in continuation of the Old Testament prophecies.
It is coming in a visible manifested glory. It is the coming as spoken of in second Thessalonians or in Revelation chapter nineteen, where John records the vision that he saw when heaven was opened. And he saw the Lord Jesus coming forth, and the armies of heaven following him, and on his name written the name the word of God, the diadem crown, king of kings and lord of lords.
In the language of our Lord himself, the coming of the book in the book of the Acts, is coming in power and in great glory, is coming to take people home to be with himself. That which we speak of as a rapture is not spoken of or referred to in the book of the Acts. That is a subject which is revealed to us later through the ministry and teaching of the Apostle Paul in his epistle. It is hinted at in the Gospel according to John, but will it develop for us in the epistles of Paul.
Now this evening, as was announced this morning, I want to base my remarks upon Acts chapter two and verse one. Tomorrow night, in the will of God, we shall speak on the Words of our Lord, ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. The baptism of the Spirit, what does it mean and what did it mean? Is it an experience that Christians today should seek for? Seeing those disciples, were disciples before the day of Pentecost, And the Lord said, You shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit, not many days hence.
Does that mean that believers in the Lord Jesus may expect an experience that we may speak of as a second experience connected with the baptism in the Spirit? Then we read that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow night in the will of God, What does the Word of God teach with regard to the baptism and filling of the Spirit? And what is its relation to the day of Pentecost? Tuesday night, God willing, we shall speak a little on tongues, the fulfillment of a prophetic warning found in the Old Testament.
And so night by night during the week we shall go on with this chapter and its associated portions, and on Friday night in the will of God, our closing night will be the subject of healing, the healing of the body. What does the Word of God teach with regard to this subject which so many are giving a good deal of thought and attention to, and a subject which is being spoken on a great deal and is drawing tremendous crowds in so many places where people profess to heal people and profess to perform miraculous deeds of healing.
What does the Word of God teach with regard to these things? It is well that we should be acquainted with what the Scripture teaches. This will come before us on Friday evening. So will you please make these meetings as well known as you can and seek to bring others with you to these meetings? We shall know, of course, how successful you have been in bringing others new people along by the number of people who will take these booklets at the beginning of each meeting. So I trust that there will be quite a number who will take these books during the week. Now Acts chapter two and verse one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. It's the first half of that verse that I want especially to dwell upon tonight. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, or when the fiftieth day was fully come, It's unfortunate that the word was not translated. It would have saved us a great deal of trouble, I think.
At least it would have saved us a good deal of confusion and a confusion of thought in the minds of a great many if the word had been translated in the same way as the word baptism and baptism. If those words had been translated, it would have been better. The word Pentecost translated just simply means the fiftieth day. And when the fiftieth day was fully come, they were all together with one accord in one place.
We shall see who the day were tomorrow night. And I turn, we may please, to the Old Testament, to Leviticus twenty-three, first of all. Leviticus twenty-three. If we want to give a subject to our meeting tonight, to the message tonight, it would be this, the day of Pentecost, the fulfillment of a prophetic program. And in Leviticus twenty-three, we read, in verse four, these are the feasts of the Lord, the set feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which He shall proclaim in their season.
In the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein. Now verse nine, And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of first fruit of your harvest and to the priest.
And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. Now down to verse fifteen. And he shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheep of the wave offering, seventh Sabbath shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the Sabbath, the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty days. We shall offer a new meal offering unto the Lord.
He shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenths deal. They shall be of fine flour. They shall be bacon with leaven. They are the first fruits unto the Lord. Then we have instruction regarding the harvest. Then we come down to verses twenty-three and twenty-four. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, and holy convocation, and following death.
We have the instructions regarding the annual day of atonement on the tenth day, and the feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Now these are what are known as the Feast of the Lord, the Holy Convocation. God gave them to Israel. They were memorials. They were memorials of certain events in Israel's past. They were intended to keep fresh in the memory of the people of God. Some of the great events in their national history.
Same as in this country. A great deal is made of July the fourth. Every country has certain special days. God wanted Israel to keep in mind certain days and events in their national history. The Passover was a reminder to them a memorial of the time when God delivered them from Egyptian bondage. And connected with that was a piece of unleavened bread for seven days.
The one led to the other, the one gave birth to the other. They were inseparably associated. During the week, of the feast of unleavened bread. The date is not given, but the day of the week is given when they were to wave a sheaf or a handful of the first fruits before the Lord. That was to be done on the morrow after the Sabbath. That was clearly the first day of the week. after the Sabbath.
Nothing could be clearer than the way it is stated. The sheep of first fruits was to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath. Then they were to reckon forty-nine days, seven whole weeks. And at the close of the seventh week, on the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, they were to bring a new meal offering unto the Lord. Made of two tempest deals of fine flour, baked with leaven.
In connection with the meal offering, that was offered in connection with the sheaf of first fruits, there was no leaven. Leaven was absent when you come to read verses thirteen. That was associated with the waving of the sheaf of first fruits. But in verse seventeen and eighteen, Here we have a meal offering in which leaven was to be an ingredient. Only one of two occasions when leaven was an ingredient in a meal offering.
The other was in the offering for Thanksgiving, the feast offering for Thanksgiving. It had leaven in it. This feast ushered in the harvest. It marked the commencement of the wheat harvest. The sheaf of first fruit marks the commencement of the barley harvest. But the fiftieth day, spoken of here as the, and parts of the Old Testament as the feast of week, In Exodus it's the feast of harvest, but in later rabbinical writings it is spoken of as the feast of Tentigoths, the feast of the fiftieth day.
These three feasts, they were all very closely associated. They were all associated with the Passover season. The Passover on the fourteenth day, Connected with that there were seven days of holy convocation with the feast of unleavened bread. During that week the waving of the sheep of Pursuit. And then, seven weeks later, there was this feast of harvest. The bringing out of these two new loaves baked not only with new meals, but a new type of meal offering.
a meal offering the like which they had not offered before. It was not only a new meal offering in the sense that it was with new and fresh meals, but a new type of meal offering. Then they had a period of nearly three and a half months when there was to be no holy convocation, during which there were no festive gatherings. during which Israel was scattered throughout their harvest fields. Then on the seventh month, on the first day of the seventh month, all over the land, there was a memorial of the blowing of trumpets.
Every man blowing his own trumpet. One brother, who was a little bit of a wit, announced a missionary meeting in Glasgow many years ago. when a number of missionaries were to speak. And he said, this afternoon we're going to have a feast of trumpets, and every man is going to blow his own trumpet. But that wasn't exactly what you have here. Here was a time when the people were really awakened to a realization of the fact that now there had commenced the great month of the year, the seventh month, the commencement of the civil year in Israel's calendar.
On the tenth day all the men were to gather in Jerusalem for the day of atonement. On the fifteenth day they would celebrate the Feast of Tabernacle. Now when we come to the New Testament we have clear indication that these were not only commemorated, that these were prophetic as well. They were like a finger post pointing back to certain events and a finger post pointing on to certain other great events, pointing backwards, pointing onwards.
Now in the epistle to the Corinthians and the first chapter, the first epistle, Paul tells us that our Passover, verse seven, our Passover is sacrificed for us, even Christ, verse seven, purged out there for the old lamp, old leaven, that he may be a new lamp, even as he are on leaven, for our Passover is sacrificed for us, even Christ. So we have New Testament authority, spirit-inspired authority for believing that the Passover as instituted in Egypt and recorded for us in Exodus twelve and as commemorated by Israel on the first month of their religious calendar every year that that was prophetic of a great event yet to come and
prophetic of the death of Christ. It's of this and to this that I referred this morning where I quoted to you Matthew twenty six and verse two where the Lord Jesus said, You know that after two days is the feast of Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed or delivered to be crucified. And you'll remember that in the following verses we read this. Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people and to the palace of the high priests.
And they consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. They were the jury. They were the judges. They didn't want to crucify Christ on the feast day. They said, Not on the feast day. But the Lord Jesus said, after two days is the Passover and the Son of Man is delivered to be crucified. Not merely betrayed by Judas. I do not believe the law of Jesus was referring to the betrayal by Judas.
The word of course is translated betrayed, but the same word is the word delivered in Acts chapter two. He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. He was delivered for our offenses. God spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. After two days is the Passover and the Son of Man is delivered to be crucified. Here was a special date in the calendar of prophecy. a special date in the prophetic calendar, Christ's death.
In chapter fifteen of this same epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle refers to the resurrection of Christ in these words. In verse twenty, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first proof of them that fled. so that in Christ and His crucifixion, the Passover has been fulfilled. And in Christ and His resurrection, the waving of the sheath of first prince, that has been fulfilled. And I want you to notice again the days, not the dates.
The date was flexible. The date of the Passover was fixed. But not the date of the waving of the sheep. The day of the week was fixed for that. The morrow after the Sabbath. That's the first day of the week. That's the morning of the resurrection. That's what we have in Matthew and in other Gospels. The first day of the week. Mary Magdalene went early to the grave. She went in her way to the place as she knew the body of the Lord Jesus had been placed.
And those that were with her, they discussed, Who shall roll away the stones on us? What's going to happen when we get there? The soldiers would be there. The stone was going to be there. And that stone was not a small stone. That stone would be almost as thick as this sketch. And a very wide stone, the diameter of that stone, the entrance to the tomb was high enough for men to go through and take a body and place it in its resting place.
It wasn't just a small hole through which they had to, with great difficulty, go in. It was a large entrance into the rock-hewn tomb. And to roll away the stones would be an absolute impossibility for the women. When they got there they found the soldiers had left. The stone had been rolled away. An old Welsh preacher, rather eccentric old preacher known as Christmas Evans used to say, that when the angel rolled away the stone and sat on it, it was necessary to do so, otherwise the stone would have been rolling still.
He rolled the stone away and sat on it, stopped it from rolling any further. For a morning, the morning of the resurrection was. The morrow after the Sabbath. Seventh-day Adventists tried to tell us that it was Constantine that changed the worship, the day for worship among Christians. They tried to tell us that in apostolic days, they worshipped on the Sabbath day. And that the Sabbath day, this Saturday, is the day.
Then we'll grant that for a moment, for argument's sake. But I wonder whoever puts the first day of the week back into the book of Moses. Constantine certainly had nothing to do with putting that into Leviticus twenty-three. The morrow after the Sabbath, long before Constantine was ever dreamt of. We're back in the days of Moses. God made it clear that the resurrection was going to be on the first day of the week. And then we have the seven weeks that follow.
Forty days our Lord was with his disciples. Appeared to them on several occasions. Now the fortieth day he appeared to them. with the eleven, just the eleven, and told them that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days' heads. Then as we read this morning, five or six times over, in the compass of eleven verses, Luke refers to the attention of Christ. I glance through this book tonight to see if I can find a hymn book, a hymn rather, that will tell me, who could we sing something about the ascension of Christ in it?
And I've been disappointed. Without taking it that day, come Tyler to ask them why they've left out hymns that tell us of the exaltation, the ascension of Christ. Maybe I didn't look carefully enough, but I failed to find any that really left. just what I wanted. A great deal of singing concerning the death of Christ, a great deal regarding the resurrection of Christ. There are few hymns there are that direct our attention to the man in the glory, to the fact that he's now on the throne. Darren Smith wrote one, and he said, Rise, my soul!
Behold, it is Jesus! Jesus fills thy wandering eyes. See him now in glory. Seated where thy sins no more can rise. There in righteousness contendance, low in heaven he hath appeared. Show the blood of his atonement of thy title to be there. And in the hymn books that you use here when you meet to remember the Lord, there are many hymns that tell us about the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. One of the great prominent themes of New Testament preaching and New Testament teaching is not only that he died, not only that he rose again, the resurrection is referred to some sixty-eight times in the New Testament.
It's woven into the very warp and roof of the whole fabric of New Testament emulation. and the ascension of Christ. I was amazed many years ago when I tried to go through the New Testament to see how often and in how many ways God had drawn our attention to the fact of Christ's attention to glory. Even in the book of the Acts in chapter one, there are at least three or four different words He was there to tell us about his ascension to go to glory. He was received up.
What a wonderful reception our Lord must have said when he went to glory. You remember what a wonderful reception the prodigal had when he came home. The father said this, my son was lost in his sound. Let us be Mary. But whatever, how who can ever measure the joy that must have filled the courts of glory for the Lord Jesus was received back in all the honors of the triumphant, victory over all the hosts, infernal.
What a joy rejoicing that was when our Lord ascended glory. Some interpret Psalm twenty-four in the light of it. I hardly think it really refers to death. It refers, I am no doubt to, it is coming again in coming glory. But many do. I remember hearing the late Dr. James M. Gray, the one who wrote the hymn which you sang tonight, I am only a sinner saved by grace, telling us and explaining Psalm twenty-four in connection with the exaltation and the ascension of our Lord. He was received. A cloud caught him up.
The cloud became a chariot, became his chariot to attend to the glory. He went up. A similar word, the same word as he used in Luke twenty four. The Lord went with the two to Amir. And just as we go from place to place, Our Lord went up to heaven. No need of any propelling power. No jet propulsion. He was received.
He ascended. He was caught, carried as it were, in the cloud as a chariot. And he went up. He went through the heavens. The heavens are infested with the powers of darkness. The prince of the power of the air is one of the names to Satan in the word of God. Daniel was told by the angel that he had been sent three weeks before in answer to his prayer and petition that the prince of the kingdom of Persia had withstood it.
He hadn't been able to come just as soon as he would like to have come. The prince of the kingdom of Persia was no man. He wasn't some monarch. He was undoubtedly Satan's viceroy. over the kingdom of Persia, one of Satan's chief angels. And he was stood, Gabriel if he was coming to Daniel's help. But when our Lord went to glory, no powers of darkness could stand in his way.
At the cross he had spoiled principalities and powers. He had made a show of them openly. And later he said, I am he that liveth, and I became dead, and I am alive forevermore, and I am the keys of death, and I am the keys of hell attached to my girdle. Over the Lord's attention he ascended up on high, he led to purity captive. He ascended as a conqueror. The New Testament uses other language.
Peter in the day of Tentica said, being by the right hand of God exalted. Paul goes even further and he says, God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. and adds in the epistles to the Ephesians that God not only raised him from the dead, but sat him at his own right hand, far above all principalities and powers. Christ is in joy. This is the great message of the Gospel.
This is the triumphant note of the New Testament message. Not a Christ who died and is dead. Not a Christ who died and rose merely. But Christ who died and rose again and lives in the power of an endless life. It says John in writing his Gospel, Jesus, the Spirit was not yet given, for Jesus was not yet glorified. The ascension of Christ is that which introduced this word. He was glorified in answer to his own petitions.
Now, Father, glorify thou me with a glory which I had with thee before the world was. God, says Peter, has given him glory. He has entered into heaven. said the Apostle in Hebrews, we have an anchor that within the veil, Christ in glory is the anchor of the believer. A sure and steadfast anchor embedded within the veil.
To be as a young Christian, nearly fifty years ago, talked about by a good many doubts and fears, having never heard the gospel very clearly. A word concerning the exaltation of Christ was that which brought permanent peace and blessing to my soul. Said the brother, I was ministering on that occasion, young men, Christ is your representative, give at the right hand of the majesty on high. Christ is in glory today, your representative.
He's there to look after your interests in the glory. He's left you here to look after his interests here. But he is there to look after our interests in the course of glory. And so we read here in Acts chapter two and verse one. Then the day of Pentecost was fully come. The fiftieth day was fully come. Then the more after the seventh Sabbath was fully come. Here's another first day of the week.
The Holy Spirit came. And the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Tentacost was the answer upon earth to a glorified man at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Let us be clear with regard to this that the Holy Spirit did not come on the day of Tentacost because the disciples prayed. Let us be perfectly clear that we are never told that they ever prayed for the Holy Ghost to come. let us be equally clear that they were never told to pray for the Holy Spirit to come.
The Lord Jesus said, I will pray the Father and he will give you, send you another comforter. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the comforter will not come. The coming of the Holy Spirit was contingent, knocked upon the prayers of the few disciples. It was contingent upon the exaltation of Christ, contingent upon the Father's answering the prayer of the Son. I will pray the Father, and he will give you the Holy Spirit. And says, Peter, being by the right hand of God exalted, he has shed forth this which he now see and hear.
And I want you to turn with me for a moment to Psalm psalm hundred and eighteen. Here is the psalm which brings before us some of the events connected with the cross and the coming of our loss. Verse twenty-two, the stone which the builders rejected refused has become the headstone of the corner. Now Peter on the day of, not on the day of Sentecost, but as recorded in Acts chapter four, Peter quotes those words and he applies those words very definitely to those to whom he was addressing his words.
He says in chapter four and verse eight, the rulers of the people and elders of Israel, And after telling them about crucifying his son, crucifying the Lord Jesus. Verse ten, Be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified. Verse eleven, this is the stone which hath set us not to view builders, at the rejection of Christ. Christ was rejected.
But he goes further. He says that stone has become the headstone of the corner. There is a tradition that when Solomon's temple was being built, the stones are all glued and cut and trimmed in the quarries. I remember hearing it when I was a boy. It's very little that I ever heard as a boy in the Baptist Chapel in South Wales that I ever remembered. But I do remember one man telling this traditional story, that this stone was sent up by the builders or to the builders.
And they couldn't fit it in anywhere. And they set it on one side. And the stone is supposed to grow down. to the valley, down the valley of Hinnom. And there it became covered with a debris. And at last they came to the place where they needed the headstone or the corner. They couldn't find one. They sent down to the men at the quarry, send up the headstone. They said, we've already sent it up. Then someone remembered that this stone that had been sent up and rolled down and they went and looked for it.
And there was the rejected stone. And they brought it up and it hit it in. It was the head stone. And so Peter, the stone which you builders have rejected. You have rejected Christ. He is in the language of Genesis the stone of Israel. and they rejected him. God has made him the headstone of the corner. This is marvelous, he says in Psalm number eighteen. This is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous in our eyes. Now look at verse twenty-six.
Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now in Matthew twenty-three, as well as in in Luke's Gospel. This word is quoted by the Lord Jesus. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often could I have gathered you as a hen would gather her little brood of chicken? But she would not. Your house is left unto you deathly, and you will not see me henceforward, henceforth, you will not see me until, until you say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.
And he quotes Psalm hundred and eighteen and verse twenty-six. So you've got the crucifixion in verse twenty-two. You've got the exaltation in the second half of verse twenty-two. You've got the coming manifestation of Christ in glory in verse twenty-six. But now look with me at verse twenty-four. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it. That's the day of his exaltation. It may refer, if you like, to the whole period of grace. Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation. You may, if you like, apply it to a period of time from the time when our Lord was exalted to glory until the time he comes again in power. The day of grace. but I like to apply it to the day when our Lord was exalted in glory by it. This is the day the Lord was made. It's marvellous in our eyes that the one who is crowned with harm and in ignominy and shame on Golgotha's trees is now in glory, crowned with honor and with glory. Oh, little wonder, the psalmist exultingly cries out, this is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us examine it. Let us rejoice in it. No fellow believer is the day. Let us examine. Let us rejoice in this great act. That our Lord is in glory. In the epistles of the Corinthians and the second epistle, the apostle speaks of the gospel. As the gospel of the glory of Christ. Not merely the glorious gospel. But the gospel of the glory of Christ, the glad tidings of the fact that Christ is now in glory. You remember when Joseph sent his brethren home, he sent them home with this message, go and tell my father, none about my chains and all the years, the two and nearly three years that I spent in prison.
Tell my father of all my glory. Tell them about my glory when you get back home, will you? And they went back home to tell their father, not so much about the time he spent in prison, but it was their joy and with a beaming countenance, forgiven sinners as they were, kissed and pardoned by their exalted brother. Now... They with joy tell their father, he is Lord over all the land of Egypt. He binds the princes of Egypt at his pleasure. He teaches the senator's wisdom. He is in power and great glory, yonder in Egypt.
That's the gospel of the glory of Christ foreshadowed in Joseph's experience. Now message tonight is the message of Pentecost. When the real Pentecostals fully come, the Spirit came, seeing by the right hand of God's exalted he had shed forth this which we now see and hear. May God bless his word to us. Tomorrow night in the will of God, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and what does it mean? Then we pray and then we'll sing two verses of the hymn. O God, our Father, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, return to be with thanksgiving tonight.
We thank you for these red letter days in world history. Days when events of such epical character and consequences took place. When Christ died, when when he was glorified. When he rose from the dead. Oh, God, we thank thee tonight for the message that thy word gives to us concerning thy son, our Lord. Write it upon our hearts, and grant that we as thy people may carry out the word of injunction.
Let us be glad and rejoice in this day which thou hast made, the day when our Lord was exalted with glory. allowed by thy name, part us with thy blessing. In the name of the Lord Jesus.