The following suggested or possible grouping of Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and limited commentary are, hopefully, obviously thematically related. And the concept behind this High Sabbath’s selection is the nature of the Holy Spirit…it is suggested that fellowships have morning and afternoon services on the High Days; thus, readings for two services are grouped together.

Clickable hymns on this page require RealPlayer to be installed on your computer. The download is free.

Possible songs include the following hymns:
In Christ There Is No East Or West
The God of Abraham Praise
Trust & Obey
Jesus Calls Us O'er the Tumult
Faith of Our Fathers

Readings for Pentecost

June 4, 2006

MORNING SERVICES

The person conducting Pentecost services should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.

The first passage read should be Leviticus chapter 23, verses 1 and 2, then verses 9 through 22, followed by Deuteronomy chapter 16, verses 9 through 12, and 16 and 17, then Exodus chapter 23, verses 14 through 17.

Commentary: The three seasons or times a year when the natural nation of Israel was to appear before the Lord are Unleavened Bread (or Passover as the entire season is sometimes called), Pentecost, and Tabernacles, these three seasons equating to the grain harvests of Judea, which in turn equate to the three seasons involving harvests of the Lord. Every person who has drawn breath will appear before the Lord during one of these harvest seasons to have his or her judgment revealed.

Herein lays the typological difficulty that kept the plan of God concealed from both the natural and the spiritual nations of Israel until the time of the end. Judean hillsides only brought forth two grain harvests, not three, with the first harvest [the barley harvest] stretched over a seven week period, from the Wave Sheaf Offering to the holy convocation at the Feast of Weeks (a.k.a. Pentecost). One harvest of firstfruits. And the lateral passage of time of those seven “weeks” or “times” changes from the “x-axis” orientation of this world to a “y-axis” orientation in the timeless heavenly realm—in the supra-dimensional heavenly realm, both the beginning of this harvest of firstfruits and its conclusion occur on the same day, thereby causing human time-orientated conceptual difficulties.

There is a tendency among disciples formerly nurtured in the splintered churches of God to say that a person cannot understand the plan of God unless the person appears before God these three times a year, thus keeping the seven annual Sabbaths of God: the first two during Unleavened Bread; Pentecost the third; and Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, and Great Last Day being the four that occur during the season of Tabernacles. The problem is that these splintered churches, at best, because of being taught precept-upon-precept exegesis, only partially understand the plan of God. So these splintered churches are not now where a disciple should go for spiritual understanding; for the two harvests of God (i.e., the spring harvest of firstfruits, portrayed by the Judean barley harvest, and the fall harvest of humanity, portrayed by the Judean wheat harvest) are represented by Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles, with the entirety of the plan of God revealed in the spring holy days (Passover through Pentecost), and again in the fall holy days (Trumpets through Great Last Day).

Two harvests, two presentations of the plan of God—both harvests and both presentations form the single plan in the same way that Theos and Theon (from John 1:1-2), together, formed YHWH.

Christ Jesus was the first of the firstfruits. He was the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, and He appeared before God and was accepted during Unleavened Bread. He was without sin, leavening representing sin—and He appeared before God midweek, on the first day of the week.

The above sentence should not initially make sense, but the above sentence is central to understanding the relationship between Passover and Pentecost as the lateral passage of time changes orientations. What occurs midweek in one reckoning of time occurs on the first day of the week in another reckoning. Just as the holy calendar by which the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread [the 15^th of the first month to the 22^nd] and week long Feast of Tabernacles [the 15^th of the seventh month to the 22^nd] are computed does not [i.e., should not] take into account week days when determining the first day of these sacred weeks, thereby allowing the first day of these two sacred weeks to occur on any secular weekday, the holy weeks of God that pertain to His plan are not oriented around the secular calendar’s weekdays.

The dualism of weekdays, though, is of God and can be seen (and should have been realized) from the beginning:

The person doing the reading should now read Leviticus chapter 23, verse 3.

Commentary: Notice that the weekly Sabbath is the first of the listed holy convocations, and the weekly Sabbath’s orientation goes back to when God sent manna to the natural Israelites that left Egypt.

The person doing the reading should now read Exodus chapter 16, verses 4 through 30, with emphasis on verses 23 through 26.

Commentary: This bread from heaven, manna, of which Jesus said He was the reality (John 6:32-35), was given to test Israel as to whether the nation would walk in the laws of God—the Sabbath is given as a test of Israel to see if the nation will walk in the laws of God. Manna, which feeds the belly, was both sustenance and test. Spiritually, the man Jesus who came down from heaven as the true bread to feed the Spirit is both sustenance and test—and the test comes from whether the flesh will rest on the Sabbath.

Therefore, the seventh day Sabbath which has continually cycled through recorded history from the time of Moses until this present day remains as a test of whether a natural or a spiritual Israelite will enter into the rest of God—and the result of this testing is that very few Israelites have not profaned the Sabbaths of God, with the holy spiritual nation the greatest of the blasphemers.

The weekly Sabbath exists as a test independent of the heavenly signs: it is creation of the natural world (Ex 31:12-17). It is for this natural world, where the tent of flesh of every spiritual Israelite remains dwelling, and it doesn’t go away as a test until the coming of the timeless new heaven and new earth.

As a spiritual Israelite is a born-of-Spirit son of God domiciled in a tent of flesh for the maturation of this son, the spiritually circumcised Israelite is a new creature, a heavenly creature in a body of flesh that remains subject to testing by the Sabbath…in His sermon on the mount, Jesus said not to think that He came to abolish the Law and the Prophets [i.e., the Old Testament] (Matt 5:17). In this sermon, Jesus said that under the Law, murder, what the hand does, becomes anger, a desire of the heart (vv. 21-22); adultery, what the body does, becomes lust, the desire of the mind (vv. 27-28). The Law that He did not come to abolish moved from governing the actions of the hand and body to governing the desires of the heart and mind. Thus, the Sabbath commandment moves from addressing the actions of the hand and the body to addressing the actions of the heart and mind—the Sabbath doesn't move to the 8^th day; nor does it become everyday. Rather, the Sabbath commandment now governs the thoughts of the heart and mind on the 7^th day. Whereas under the old written code with its ministry of death (2 Cor chap 3) a physically circumcised Israelite could think about work all Sabbath, but wouldn't break the commandment if he didn't actually do any work, under the New Covenant, written on two tablets of flesh (the heart and the mind), the spiritually circumcised Israelite will have cleansed the inside of the cup, the earthenware vessel that he or she is, and this Israelite will desire to think about and to do the things of God on the Sabbath—on the other six days of the week, the earthenware vessel provides for the vessel's needs even though the desires of the heart and mind are for God. But on the seventh day, those desires of the heart and mind will rule over the flesh as a lively foreshadowing of the new creature in the heavenly realm, where the flesh will have put on immortality.

The Law moves from being written on two tablets of stone…lifeless stone ground fine enough to be a colloid becomes, when mixed with a little oil, the clay of a potter, whereas barley or wheat berries with their inherent life, when ground into fine flour and mixed with a little oil, are baked into the bread of life. As a thrown clay vessel must be fired to be usable, so too much must a lump of flour be “fired,” and it is this firing or baking that tests clay vessels and kills the leavening that softened the dough. Leavening “lightens” bread by causing exhaled gases [the byproduct of yeast organisms feeding on sugars] to become trapped in the dough.

Enough for a few minutes…The Philadelphia Church and the Churches of God traditionally take up an offering on the three seasons when all Israel was to appear before God, and not appear empty, but giving as blessed and as able. This offering is primarily the inner self-aware, self-conscience new man or creature, born of Spirit, presenting the body of the old man, or old self before God. Disciples in those fellowships that do not observe the holy days will, in the heavenly realm, appear before God in their prayers on these days. But they appear empty-handed. They appear with nothing, while all who are here today have brought an offering, themselves.

The person conducting Pentecost services should, at this time, pass a plate or basket as would be appropriate for the size of the gathering. In larger gatherings, the person conducting the services would appoint others to take up the collection.

During the taking up of the offering, special music can be performed. Then following the offering should be a pray of thanks, followed by a hymn.

Resuming our thought, under the Old Covenant, Israelites were stoned to death when they broke the Law written on stone tablets; they were symbolically killed by the broken tablets. Thus, truly, the letter of the Law killed, but the Law was not abolished (again, Matt 5:17). Rather, the new covenant that is of Spirit (2 Co 3:6) is relocated from the stone tablets housed in a stone temple to fleshy tablets in living stone (1 Pet 2:4-5) that is part of a fleshy temple of God (1 Co 3:16-17).

Thus, the dualism present in the Sabbaths of God has the first set of the Sabbaths, the fifty-two annual weekly Sabbaths, taking their orientation from the creation of earth (again, Ex 31:17), these Sabbaths regulated by the setting of the physical sun, whereas the annual holy convocations or Sabbaths, with their two week long feast observances, take their orientation from the reflected light of the moon, with its waxing and waning serving as a different set of heavenly signs.

· Both the weekly Sabbaths and the annual Sabbaths, together, form the single set of Sabbaths covered by the Sabbath commandment in Deuteronomy 5:12-15.

· Note that in Exodus 20:8-11 where the Sabbath commandment is articulated in the giving of the Law that ended natural grace, nothing is said about being a slave in Egypt.

· But in Deuteronomy, the uncircumcised children of the nation that left Egypt are told to remember that they were slaves in Egypt who were brought out by the mighty hand of God.

The book of Deuteronomy isn’t the second giving of the law, but the second law or second covenant, made on the plains of Moab (Deu 29:1) with the uncircumcised children of the nation that left Egypt—and this second law incorporates key aspects of the Sinai covenant, such as the Ten Commandments and appearing before the Lord three times a year, but doesn’t include animal sacrifices.

If the fifty-two weekly Sabbaths have added to the seven annual Sabbaths, one of which is a new moon [Trumpets], plus the eleven other new moons on which the same offering was to be made as was made on annual Sabbaths, the sum of these Sabbaths is seventy [52 + 7 + 11 = 70], the complete number of Sabbaths in the plan of God. But these Sabbaths use two distinct heavenly markers to denote when they occur. Likewise, stone ground fine is sculpted into a clay vessel, which must still be fired to be usable as a lifeless container into which grain ground fine [into flour] is stored before being baked—the clay vessel into which manna was gathered is analogous to a fleshy vessel filled with the indwelling of Christ Jesus. This clay vessel remains subject to the weekly Sabbath whereas the indwelling of Christ never spoils, never draws worms, and is not subject to the weekly Sabbath, but exists in the timeless heavenly realm where He works as the Father works.

The above is the concept that has caused the holy spiritual nation the most difficulty: the flesh that is of clay, literally and figuratively, remains subject to those things that pertain to stone, whereas the Spirit, of which the new creature born-from-above as an actual son of God is, is not subject to any constraint of time or bound by any stone inscription, but is presently covered by the garment of spiritual grace that is the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Therefore, the new creature “rests” continually through being in communication with his Father (this is what Paul meant about praying continually), but this new creature dwells in a tent of flesh that is subject to the law of sin and death—and this tent of flesh, in resisting sin, will enter into God’s rest by keeping the Sabbath commandment as given in Deuteronomy.

All of the elaborate arguments for not keeping the Sabbaths of God that have arisen over the past two millennia are nothing more than lawless disciples showing God and angels the creative ways in which these rebels can fail the simple test of Christ Jesus, initially given through receipt of manna.

Returning now to the incorporation of the concept of “midweek” also being “the first day of the week” in the plan of God, heaven always equates to “rest,” which manifested itself here on earth in uncircumcised natural Israel entering Judea (Ps 95:10-11 & Heb 3:19) on the 10^th day of the first month (Jos 4:19), when the Passover lamb is selected and penned. Joshua couldn’t give the natural nation of Israel rest, for the geography of Judea serves only as a shadow and copy of the mental typography of entering into the Sabbaths of God. But more importantly, the natural nation could not experience “rest,” for this nation, the firstborn natural son of God (Ex 4:22), would be sacrificed as a future paschal lamb, with this sacrifice to begin with the Son of Man.

To end the marriage contract made at Sinai when the Lord proposed, ‘“[I]f you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you [Israel] shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine”’ (Ex 19:5), death is required. It was not enough to put away and divorce Israel. The Lord was not free to marry another until one or both of these covenanting parties is dead (Rom 7:1-3). To end the marriage, either the Lord or all of Israel had to die—but “the Lord” is YHWH. Israel only saw Yah [or YH, who was the Logos or Theos, who was with Theon in the beginning — John 1:1-2]. This natural nation never knew the Father, who is also Theon [WH]. The man Jesus of Nazareth came to reveal the Father/Theon to those disciples whom the Father had given Him, and He came to die. Being born as a natural Israelite, the Logos entered His creation (John 1:3) to complete His work by creating the pathway along which lifeless elements of the earth could enter the heavenly realm as sons of God. Therefore, as the One who contracted with the natural nation at Sinai, when the Law was given thereby ending natural grace, the death of the Logos would end the marriage made at Sinai and allow Israel to marry another.

But in the timeless heavenly realm, the presence of life and the absence of life cannot co-exist. To have life is to have everlasting live, for the moment remains unchanged forever. Thus, until the one with life in the heavenly realm is cast out of that dimension, the living-being, regardless of status, will never die. As long as the Adversary remains in the heavenly realm, he will not die. However, once he is cast to earth (Rev 12:9-10), not only can he die, but he will die (Ezek 28:18-19). He will know that his time is short.

Therefore, the Logos was born as the man Jesus, a physical Israelite who could not die for the sins of the spiritual nation of Israel. The flesh of Jesus could only pay the death penalty for the lawlessness of the flesh—Jesus’ earthly tent of flesh was directly analogous to the male goat killed on the altar as the sin offering made for natural nation of Israel (Lev 16:5, 15). His death permits a born-from-above spiritual Israelite to die [or to be crucified] with Him through baptism. But the new creature born from above doesn’t die in a watery pool, for this new creature only dwells in a tent of flesh and is not that tent. It is not possible for this new creature to perish physically, for this new creature is not of this world; he is not a physical creation, but a spiritual creation, an actual son of God who can commit lawlessness for which a death penalty is attached. Thus, the Azazel goat in the wilderness is analogous to the glorified Christ Jesus in the heavenly realm [and when physically circumcised Israel began killing the Azazel goat, the nation rejected Jesus and refused to allow Jesus to bear this nation’s spiritual lawlessness]—and in this realm, Jesus will not die again, but will give those sins that He bears either to Satan, or to the disciple, that determination made by the disciple who will die the second death in the lake of fire if he takes his sins back upon himself.

When asked for a sign of who He was, Jesus said that no sign would be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah, which wasn’t an eclipse of the sun (as some Evangelicals teach), but was: ‘“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”’ (Matt 12:40). Although Evangelicals claim that enough ambiguity exists in Greek to allow these three days and three nights to be occur in a day and a half, that level of ambiguity doesn’t exist in Hebrew where as “day” is the hot portion of a twenty-four hour period, and “night” is the twisting away or turning away from the light portion. In Jonah 1:17, the prophet was in the belly of the fish three days [three hot portions] and three nights [three twisting aways]. Therefore, a solid timeline can be constructed for the week Jesus was crucified—and understanding this timeline is necessary to realize that Jesus’ crucifixion was a copy and shadow of the sacrifice of the natural firstborn son of the Lord.

· Jesus was crucified on the Preparation Day for the high Sabbath (John 19:31, 42), the 14^th of the first month (Ex 12:6). He was the Passover Lamb for the household of God, sacrificed between the evenings as the Pharisees reckoned “even.”

· The high Sabbath was the first holy day during Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:6-7), the 15^th of the first month, the night when Egypt expelled Israel (Ex 12:31-34, 39). A high day or high Sabbath is not the weekly Sabbath.

· Jesus had entered Jerusalem on the 10^th of the first month, obtained by subtracting the six days of John 12:1 from John 19:31, then adding a day from John 12:12. He entered Jerusalem when Passover lambs were to be selected and penned (Ex 12:3), and He entered as the high priest would have entered (John 12:14 & Zech 9:9). Jesus entered Jerusalem the same day that the uncircumcised children of Israel entered Judea under Joshua.

· Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week (John 20:1; Luke 24:1; Mark 16:2; Matt 28:1).

Jesus was placed in the garden tomb as the high Sabbath was beginning [the 15^th]. He would have been in the heart of the earth for all of the 15^th [one day and one night], and He would have been in the tomb all of the 16^th [the second day and the second night], and He would have been in the tomb all of the 17^th [the third day and the third night]. He would have risen on the 18^th, the first day of the week. Thus, He would have been in the grave Thursday [the high day], Friday, and Saturday [the weekly Sabbath within the Feast of Unleavened Bread], and He would have ascended to the Father as the Wave Sheaf Offering on the morrow after the Sabbath as the Sadducees reckoned when the first of the firstfruits was to be waved. Jesus was the first sheaf of the early grain harvest; He was the first of the firstfruits. And His acceptance by the Father permitted the harvesting of the barley crop, with this crop being born of Spirit Israelites, with this harvesting continuing for seven weeks, or until the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost. Thus, Passover and Pentecost are intrinsically linked, with Jesus being both the cornerstone of the spiritual temple of God (1 Co 3:10-17) and the capstone—Jesus begins the harvest of firstfruits by being accepted by the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, and He concludes the harvest of firstfruits by revealing the judgments of His disciples upon His second coming (1 Co 4:5).

Too much of Christianity teaches that Pentecost is when Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Breath of God—and this is not the case. Ten of Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit when He, Jesus, breathed of them, and said, ‘“Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion or Breath Holy]’” (John 20:22). Disciples were visibly empowered or filled with the divine Breath on that day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4) as a foreshadowing (or as copy and type) of when the Church would be liberated from bondage to the law of sin and death that still dwells in the flesh of disciples. This spiritual liberation of the Church will, itself, be a copy and type of the liberation of all humanity from sin and death. Therefore, Pentecost forms a spiritual copy of ancient Israel’s liberation from physical bondage to Pharaoh; Pentecost is a copy of what happened when Pharaoh expelled Israel from Egypt following the death angel slaying firstborns not covered by the blood of a paschal lamb.

All of those who were empowered by the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost already had the Holy Spirit, and all of those who heard the empowered disciples speak were physical Israelites. The relationship between the disciples empowered by the visible Holy Spirit and the natural Israelites in Jerusalem to appear at the temple was hierarchically akin to the relationship between the glorified Jesus and His disciples when He breathed on the ten (again, John 20:22). One forms a copy and type of the other in the same way that what happened on that day of Pentecost foreshadows what will happen when liberated disciples will teach faithful natural Israelites at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation—and what will again happen at the middle of the seven endtime years when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, thereby giving birth-from-above to all of humanity.

The first day of the week upon which that day of Pentecost occurred (i.e., on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath, counting after the manner of the Sadducees) is analogous to the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread when Israel left Egypt…because the events that happened on that long night of waiting and watching in Egypt three and a half millennia ago are compressed into, “At midnight [YHWH] struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night…[t]hen he summoned Moses and Aaron by night [the same night] and said, ‘Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go, serve [YHWH], as you have said’” (Ex 12:29-31), certain realities have been overlooked. First, that single long night on which Passover lambs were eaten did not end until Israel had been expelled from Egypt, after spoiling the Egyptians. Six hours yet remained from when the death angel slew all firstborns and sunrise. Thus, the 15^th of the first month saw the roasting and eating of the Passover lamb, the slaying of firstborns not covered by the blood of the Passover lamb, the expulsion of Israel from Egypt, and the looting or spoiling of the Egyptians—and all of this happened before that little piece of the previous day’s leavened dough, hidden in the lump of new dough intended to be baked on the 15^th, could leaven the new lump.

Egypt and leavening symbolically represent sin in the same way that Judea represents God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11 & Heb 3:19). Therefore, when natural Israel left Egypt, and left their leavened bread behind, Israel left sin…no sin was reckoned against Israel, for the Law had not yet been given (Rom 5:13). Natural Israel was under natural grace, a type or copy and shadow of spiritual Grace that the spiritual nation of Israel is now under. This doesn’t mean that God was happy with Israel bringing the idols of Egypt out of Egypt; this means that until Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, God would not immediately kill either the nation or an Israelite for transgressions of the Law that the patriarch Abraham had kept (Gen 26:5).

Liberation of the natural nation doesn’t come with the giving of the law, but precedes the giving of the Law by about six and a half weeks—although it was taught by ministers of Herbert Armstrong that the giving of the law came on Pentecost, this cannot be the case.

Let us break here for lunch.

The person conducting Pentecost services should, at this time, adjourn services, with a hymn, a prayer, and a blessing on the food (if appropriate). The person should also announce when afternoon services are to commence.

AFTERNOON SERVICES

At the appropriate time, the person conducting services should resume services with two or three hymns, and a prayer.

Possible songs include the following hymns:
We Are God's People
Oh God Our Help In Ages Past
Not Many Wise Men Now Are Called
Old Hundredth Psalm

The person doing the reading should now read Exodus chapters 16 through 20.

Commentary: Notice first that Israel entered the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15^th of the second month, four weeks after the Passover, and on what will become the Second Passover (Num 9:9-12). Also note that neither the annual Sabbaths nor the Second Passover have been given. At this time, Israel has not received any foreknowledge of the annual Sabbaths—and Israel doesn’t have a command to keep the weekly Sabbath until the nation arrives in the wilderness of Sin.

One more thing that is often overlooked: none of the paschal lamb was to remain till morning (Ex 12:10 & Num 9:12) in the same way that no manna was to remain until morning (Ex 16:19) except on the Sabbath. Jesus said that He was the bread that came down from heaven, the reality of the manna. He is also the reality of every paschal lamb—and He will not remain with the Israelite who attempts to enter God’s rest on any day except the weekly Sabbath.

When Israel left Egypt, the nation included people from the twelve tribes, plus a mixed multitude of other peoples (Ex 12:38); so it is always wrong to limit one’s thoughts of who left Egypt to only physically circumcised Israelites. In fact the nation that crossed the Jordan has to be physically circumcised before it can keep that first Passover in God’s rest. Thus, the ancient nation of Israel, in its journey to the Promised Land, bore in Egypt and then between Egypt and Sinai a relationship with YHWH that formed a copy and shadow of the greater Christian Church’s present relationship to the Father and Son—the greater Christian Church consists of both spiritually circumcised Israelites (those disciples who have been born of spirit and upon whom judgment has come) and of a mixed multitude who like the message taught by Christianity but who have not been born of Spirit. Therefore, as it is not true to say that only Israelites left Egypt after the death angel passed over all the land, it is also not true to say that only spiritually circumcised Israelite compose today’s greater Christian Church.

Whereas six and a half weeks occurred between when Israel was expelled from Egypt and when natural grace ended with the giving of the law, the spiritual reality of these events that will see spiritually circumcised Israelites liberated from sin through empowerment by the Holy Spirit [the equivalent of being expelled from Egypt] and the Son of Man revealed [the removal of the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness] at the same time, for these two events are spiritual events that originate in the timeless heavenly realm. Yes, whereas it took physically circumcised nation of Israel six weeks to reach the wilderness of Sinai, thereby placing the giving of the Law [depending upon the precision of the language] a few days before Pentecost would have occurred, the liberation of spiritual Israel through empowerment by the Holy Spirit, and the revealing or making naked through removing the garment of Christ’s righteousness of the Son of Man are events compressed together due to these events occurring in the heavenly realm with their manifestation in this world.

The Church forms a moving island in the lawlessness of the world in the same way that the ancient nation of Israel traversed the physical wilderness of Sin.

As an aside, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone, the Apostle Paul laid the foundation for the house of God, constructed in the heavenly city of Jerusalem, and The Philadelphia Church stands on this foundation as pillars in this holy house. And above these pillars will be the capstone. So the construction of this house of God in the heavenly city will not be complete until Jesus returns as King of kings and Lord of lords—will not be completed until judgments are revealed. But the revealing of judgments pertains to all of the Body of the Son of Man, including the portion that has fallen asleep and presently slumbers in unconsciousness in the timeless heavenly realm. This slumbering portion of the Body experienced death, and was not consciously liberated from the law of sin and death that dwelt in its fleshly members. This portion equates to natural Israelites in Egypt, but not to those expelled by Pharaoh…passage of time is required here on earth to represent in historic laterality the spiritual verticality of the Son of Man in the supra-dimensional heavenly realm. Thus, Israel’s four hundred thirty years in Egypt equates to the period during which humanity has been consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32). That is, natural Israel’s stay in Egypt forms the copy and shadow of humanity’s four-plus millennia between the Flood, the baptism of the world into death by water, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28), the baptism of the world into life through birth by Spirit. And the generation of natural Israel that ate the first Passover lamb equates to all of the Church between when the Apostle Paul laid its foundations and the seven endtime years of tribulation.

Again, Jesus is the cornerstone. Jesus would have been crucified on Wednesday, and He would have entered Jerusalem on the previous weekly Sabbath. Wednesday was the 14^th; Tuesday the 13^th, Monday the 12^th, Sunday the 11^th, the Sabbath the 10^th. And the night portion of the 15^th began when disciples began roasting and eating the light of men (John 1:4), thereby taking into themselves life. This night of the 15^th will now continue until the death angel passes throughout the land, giving the lives of men as ransom for the firstborns of Israel (Isa 43:3-4) [the event that begins the seven endtime years]. This night of the 15^th will continue until Israel is liberated from bondage by being expelled from sin through being filled with the Holy Spirit. This night of the 15^th will continue until Christ Jesus fights as on a day of battle, splitting the Mount of Olives (Zech 14:3-4). And this split stone cut without human hands will swallow the armies of the man of perdition, thereby ending spiritual Babylon’s reign over humanity.

Jesus’ return as capstone compresses the harvest of firstfruits into one midweek day, the fourth day of the spiritual creation week described in Genesis chapter one. But this fourth day occurs on the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that begins with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Thus, the glorified Jesus’ acceptance as the Wave Sheaf Offering on the fourth day of Unleavened Bread (in the Roman calendar year of 31 CE) equates to when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, these endtime years equating to the days of Unleavened Bread…Pentecost becomes a representation of when all of humanity is born from above and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And the reality of this high Sabbath isn’t seven weeks or seven years removed from when spiritually circumcised Israel is liberated from sin and death, but the same length of time away, in type, as occurred between when Jesus was crucified and when He appeared before the Father.

For three days and three nights, Jesus lay in the heart of the earth—for three and a half years, the saints will be given into the hand of the man of perdition (Dan 7:25). For those three days and three nights, Jesus’ disciples were not certain that His ministry wasn’t over. Likewise, for the three years when the saints are delivered into the hand of the lawless one, genuine disciples will not be certain that “Christianity” as they know it isn’t over. These saints will pray to God, but it will seem as if their prayers are not heard. Truly, they will be delivered over to the lawless one for purging, and to be sacrificed.

Until the midweek day arrives when the third part of humanity (Zech 13:9) is born of Spirit from the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), the righteous saints will be persecuted as Jesus was persecuted and slain as Cain slew righteous Abel. Jesus, Himself, was accepted by the Father on the fourth day of the physical Feast of Unleavened Bread—according to the weekly calendar, the sacrifice was cut off midweek (Dan 9:27) or on Wednesday. It was cut off midweek in the heavenly realm (after three and a half years of ministry). And except for a remnant (Rev 12:17), all of His present disciples will be cut off by midweek, or by three and a half years into seven endtime years of tribulation.

Not only will Jesus’ disciples be cut off either physically or spiritually, but the natural firstborn son of YHWH will also be cut off.

Picking up a partially developed thread, before Yah [the Logos born as the man Jesus] can marry again, either He must die in the heavenly realm, which is not possible, or all of the natural nation of Israel must die; for the marriage that occurred at Sinai was not between two human beings, but between a nation and its God. The nation has to die, beginning with the man Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, before Jesus returns, the entirety of this natural nation will have either died physically or died through baptism into the Body of Christ. The first half of the seven endtime years will see the sacrifice of this natural firstborn son of God—and will see these natural branches either gathered to be burned, or gathered and grafted onto the root of righteousness.

Again, the firstfruits—saints who have been drawn and chosen in this age—appear before God as the reality of the Judean barley harvest. They are represented by, and are the reality of the two loaves, baked with leaven, offered at the Feast of Weeks (“Pentecost” means “fifty,” and is usually said to mean “count fifty”). But they will not be glorified seven weeks or fifty days after the spiritual Feast of Unleavened Bread ends, for once the holy spiritual nation of Israel is liberated from bondage to sin, thereby beginning the spiritual Feast at which leavening represents sin, this nation never returns to sin. Individual disciples might well again take sin inside themselves, but when they do so, they are cut off from the holy nation. They will have taken the mark of Death [chi xi stigma] unto themselves.

The giving of the Law from atop Mount Sinai in the third month, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit fifty days after Jesus appeared before the Father—both foreshadow the liberation of the holy spiritual nation from the law of sin and death that presently dwells in the flesh of disciples (again, Rom 7:21-25). This liberation will occur at a future second Passover (Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8; Isa 11:11), when the lives of men will again be given as ransom (Isa 43:4).

It isn’t to the splintered churches of God that a disciple can go for spiritual understanding of the plan of God. These slivered fellowships, indeed, claim knowledge, but they have prepared their peoples to worship Satan when he is cast from the heavenly realm. And if these peoples refuse to worship the Cross, they will be sacrificed, and will wait in garden tombs until Christ Jesus returns after another three and a half years.

The Church wears the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness as its covering for lawlessness; therefore, a pinprick of light moving through a night’s darkness perhaps best conveys the image of a disciple in the world. What is seen is the light, not the center of the source of light. The emitted light cloaks or conceals with brightness that which is energized to produce the light. Thus, the woman in Revelation chapter 12 is “clothed with the sun” (v. 1). The woman cannot really be seen because of the brightness of her garment—this is the woman who gave birth to a male child caught up to God and to His throne (v. 5). When? There is only one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, and that one is the Son of Man, with Christ Jesus as its Head and disciples as its presently clothed Body. And Christ Jesus was caught up to God mid-week (i.e., on the fourth day of Unleavened Bread) which was also the first day of the week. The disciples who form the Body of this Son of Man will be caught up to heaven midweek of the creation week described in Genesis chapter one.

The juxtaposition of mid-week and the first day of the week being simultaneously occurring time periods transfers to the woman who fled into the wilderness for 1,260 days…the woman who wears the brightness of the sun wasn’t the spiritually lifeless natural nation of Israel [this nation had no light: at its best, it reflected the light of God as the moon reflects the sun]. Rather, this woman is spiritual Israel, the only holy nation of God with life in the heavenly realm. And this woman is now living through the single long spiritual night of waiting and watching foreshadowed by the night the tenth plague occurred in ancient Egypt. This night is the dark portion of the first day of Unleavened Bread, a spiritual feast that will see, mid-week, the Holy Spirit poured out on all flesh (again, Joel 2:28) halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation.

Those natural Israelites who had a month earlier left Egypt grumbled against Moses and Aaron, just as too many Christians grumble against God. How, might a Christian ask, does he or she grumble against God? Entering the Promised Land represents entering God’s rest, which is also represented by the weekly Sabbath. How many Christians fret about what they cannot do on the Sabbath? Take a guess about how many. Then look around and see how many are attempting to enter God’s rest on the following day just as the natural nation that left Egypt tried to do (Num 14:40-41). More are grumbling than are even attempting to keep the Sabbath. You bet! So now ask how many spiritually circumcised Israel grumble against God just as the natural nation of Israel grumbled against Moses, who was to be like god to Aaron (Ex 4:16). And more importantly, how many spiritual Israelites grumble against Moses? Jesus said that if an Israelite believed Moses, the Israelite would believe Him, but if the Israelite wouldn’t believe Moses, the Israelite wouldn’t believe Him (John 5:46-47). Therefore, the Christian who won’t believe Moses won’t believe Jesus and won’t believe the One who sent Him (v. 24), so this Christian should not be surprised to be resurrected to condemnation (vv. 28-29).

The greater Christian Church loathes the so-called Law of Moses, with its restrictions that inevitably causes the person to be out-of-sync with the world. But then, the physically circumcised nation of Israel also loathed this same Law of Moses that caused them to be different from the nations around them. So the greater Christian Church can see itself as God sees it by looking at the rejected natural nation that forms its spiritual shadow. The greater Christian Church will, itself, be rejected because of its lawlessness, and its profaning of the Sabbaths of God (Ezek chap 20).

The second Passover occurs on the 15^th of the second month (Num 9:10-12), with the lamb killed at even on the 14^th. So the natural nation of Israel entered the wilderness of Sin on what be the second Passover.

Moses had asked Pharaoh to let Israel go three days’ journey into the wilderness (Exod 5:3 — read), with these three days representing the time Jesus would be in the grave before He was resurrected and appeared before the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering. But these three days cannot be so simply read: they also represent the three years between when the Church is liberated from bondage to sin and when all of humanity is liberated through the Holy Spirit being poured out upon all flesh—they represent the geographical distance between Goshen and the Sea of Reeds, where all of Israel was baptized (1 Co 10:1-2). Baptism by “sea” and by “cloud” represents both physical and spiritual baptism, with spiritual baptism not representing being immersed in water, but being born of Spirit followed by being empowered by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the representational distance of fifty days—the counting for the Feasts of Weeks—occurs once in the three days journey between liberation and the Sea of Reeds, and a second time between the Sea of Reeds and Sinai. The first Passover occurs immediately prior to when Israel is expelled from Egypt; the second Passover, which didn’t occur that first year, would have occurred between Reeds and Sinai. Knowledge of the second Passover isn’t given until after the giving of the Law from atop Sinai—until after natural grace had ended through the giving of the Law.

The element of confusion now present, if confusion is present, can be resolved through realizing that there are only two future resurrections: one at Christ’s coming, and the second during the great White Throne Judgment. There has already been one resurrection, that of Jesus on Nazareth as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering. Thus, these three resurrections are the realities of the three seasons when all of Israel is to appear before the Lord. But the second resurrection doesn’t occur on either Pentecost or Tabernacles, but in the spring of the year, at the end of a future Passover week. Therefore, Jesus as cornerstone and capstone begins the resurrection of firstfruits by being the first of the firstfruits, and He concludes the resurrection of firstfruits by revealing the judgments of His disciples upon His return. He is the uncovered Head of the Son of Man, and His disciples are the presently cloaked (for modesty’s sake) or covered Body of the Son of Man. And as the Head is attached to the Body to form one Son—Jesus and His Bride will be united as Husband and Wife to become one Spirit [they are not united by flesh to become one flesh, but by Spirit], for the last Adam is a quickening, or life-giving spirit (1 Co 15:45). And as Head and Body, Husband and Wife are united in the heavenly realm through being resurrected on the fourth day, exactly halfway through a seven day week. Whereas Jesus was resurrection on the fourth day of a physical Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Body will be resurrected on the fourth day of a spiritual Feast of Unleavened Bread, represented by creation week of Genesis chapter one.

Seed-bearing trees and plants do not appear on the earth prior to the creation of the sun and the moon Gen 1:11-19); yet that seems to be the story revealed in the poetic Genesis account of chapter one. However, in the creation account of the first Adam, the man of mud is created before any plants are created. So these two creation accounts are physically irreconcilable: they cannot both be physically true.

Although the object of a sermon is to reduce confusion, not increase it, the two creation accounts in Genesis illustrate the difficulty a biblical apologist faces, especially an apologist who insists that Scripture is the infallible word of God.

The person reading should now read Genesis chapters 1 through 4, paying special attention to chapter 1, verse 1, and chapter 2, verses 4 & 5.

Commentary: What portion of the heavens and the earth is not created in Genesis 1:1? If, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth before He created the first day, then this “first day” isn’t about a physical creation of the universe; it isn’t about a recreation of the earth that still has plants producing fruit and seeds before the creation of a great light to rule the day.

The person reading should now read Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 through 27.

Commentary: This is the famous seventy weeks prophecy that has the angel Gabriel telling Daniel that seventy weeks are decreed ‘“to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place”’ (v. 24). If both vision and prophet are to be sealed, what vision and what prophet is the referent?

The answer to this question will be the food given in the weekly Sabbath reading.

Pharisees and Rabbinical Judaism begin their counting of weeks from the 15^th of the first month, which results in the Feast of Weeks being celebrated on the 6^th of the third month. Sadducees and the Churches of God have traditionally started counting from the Wave Sheaf Offering, the Sunday following the weekly Sabbath that occurs within the seven days of Unleavened Bread. This count will result in Pentecost always occurring on a Sunday in the third month, not on a fixed calendar date.

The reality is that Pentecost would have occurred that first year after Israel left Egypt on or about the 6^th of the third month, about halfway through the week that Moses and Joshua were on the mountain — read Exodus chapter 24, verses 9 through 18 — and three days before Moses entered the cloud.

The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.

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