The Significations of Pentecost

The Significations of Pentecost 

 

Two significations of the first Pentecost after our Lord’s resurrection were stressed by Richard Ebler in his lesson for our Bible class. The first of these was Its fulfillment of the typology integral to the days of Pentecost which had preceded it. Known as the harvest feast, or feast of weeks, It was also a feast of firstfruits, since the two loaves made of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were presented to the Lord on that occasion (Exod. 34:22). 

 

The fulfillment of this typology was in the fact that the Pentecost coming seven weeks (inclusively) after Jesus’ resurrection marked a great harvest of souls. In turn, this could be said to be the firstfruits of the gospel and, as such, the pledge, or earnest, of a multitude which no man can number who will respond to and be saved by the gospel ere the day of grace has run its course. 

 

Further antitypicality was seen in Pentecost regarding the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. The law was given fifty days after the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (cf. Exo. 12 and 19), and the gospel went “forth from Jerusalem” fifty days after Christ’s death, which marked our deliverance from sin (Isa. 2:1-4). 

 

At the giving of the law, it is to be noted, 3,000 were slain because of their sin, while on the Day of Pentecost, when the gospel was first proclaimed, 3,000 were saved by their obedience. That contrast is indicative of the law as a “ministration of death” (II Cor. 3:7), whereas the gospel is one of justification and life (v. 9). 

 

The fact that on Pentecost God gave the Apostles to so speak that the peoples of various languages present heard them in their own tongues (Acts 2 :6-12) was noted by Brother Dick as a marked contrast with God’s confusion of the people’s tongues at the tower of Babel, as a result of their presumptuous endeavor to circumvent Him. 

 

So does God honor His Old-Testament ordinances and types, the teacher remarked. Consequently, we should have great respect for the ordinances of the new-covenant era, which He has ordained. To lightly regard or despise them, is to do so with reference to God, whence they are. --Noted and recorded by Fred O. Blakely 

The Departing Savior

The Departing Savior. The departing Savior and the worshipping disciples was the theme of Richard Ebler's remarks on Luke 24:50-53. Jesus left them in a posture of blessing, after the manner of Aaron, His type, when he had made the rnn offering and before he entered the tabernacle (Lev. 9:22-23). So our Lord, after His death and resurrection for the offenses and justification of the world, as He was about to go into the sanctuary on high, "lifted up His hands and blessed" the assembled disciples. 

It is gratifying to know that He left us in a posture of blessing, Brother Dick remarked, and remains so, interceding for us as our Advocate with the Father in heaven. As Christ left, so will He return, it was pointed out (Acts 1:11), appearing "the second time without sin unto salvation" to those who look for Him" (Heb. 9:28). 

It is to be noted that, as the Lord "went up," the disciples were "steadfastly" looking "toward heaven," whither He was bound, the speaker remarked. Thitherward aiso is the church to be continually looking, as it anticipates His glorious return (Tit. 2:13).

In conclusion, it was observed that the disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple,praising and blessing God." That is the way God would have the church to be, it was observed, as was the case with the Jerusalem congregation (Acts 2:41-42, 46-47).