Day of Pentecost 02 Acts 2: — J.M. Davies

We're happy 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.

The Historical Facts of the Gospel in Acts

And shall we turn together to the Book of the Acts, Chapter 2. This morning we were considering together the first and the second chapters, noticing how in Chapter 1, 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 2 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 facts 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, by Mark and Luke, in continuation of the Old Testament prophecies.

The Visible Coming of Christ and the Rapture

It is coming in a visible, manifested glory. It is the coming as spoken of in 2 Thessalonians or in Revelation 19, where John records the vision that he saw when heaven was opened, and he saw the Lord Jesus coming forth from the armies of heaven following Him, and on His name written the name, the Word of God, the Diadem crowned, King of kings and Lord of lords.

In the language of our Lord Himself, the coming in the Book of the Acts is coming in power and in great glory. It is coming to take His people home to be with Himself. That which we speak of as the 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 fully developed for us in the epistles of Paul.

The Week's Teaching on Pentecost, Tongues, and Healing

Now, this evening, as was announced this morning, I want to base my remarks upon Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. 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 who were disciples before the day of Pentecost, and the Lord said, ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit, not many days hence?

Does that mean that believers of 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.

Pentecost as the Fiftieth Day

Now, Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. 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 baptizing.

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 they were tomorrow night. And I turn with you please to the Old Testament to Leviticus 23, first of all. Leviticus 23. If we want to give a subject to our meeting tonight, to the message tonight, it would be this.

The Feasts of the Lord as a Prophetic Program

The day of Pentecost, the fulfillment of a prophetic program. And in Leviticus 23, we read, and therefore 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 he must eat unleavened bread. In the first day he shall have a holy convocation.

He shall do no servile work therein. Verse nine,. And the Lord spake 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, you shall reap the harvest thereof.

Then he shall bring a sheaf of first fruit of your harvest unto 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 15,. And he shall count unto you from the morrow, after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seventh Sabbath shall be complete. Even unto the morrow, after the Sabbath, the seventh Sabbath, shall ye number fifty days.

Ye shall offer a new meal offering unto the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths steels. They shall be of fine flour. They shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits unto the Lord.

Then we have instructions regarding the harvest. Then we come down to verses 23 and 24,. And the Lord spake 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 Feasts of the Lord, the holy convocation.

Israel's Feasts as Memorials of Redemption

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 the Feast 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 sheep or a handful of the first troops before the Lord.

That was to be done on the morrow after the Sabbath. That was clearly the first day of the week, the morrow after the Sabbath. Nothing could be clearer than the way it is stated. The sheep of first troops was to be waved before the Lord on the morrow after the Sabbath.

Then they were to reckon 49 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 fruit, hemp seeds, of fine flour, baked with leaven.

In connection with the meal offering that was offered in connection with the sheep of first troops, there was no leaven. Leaven was absent when you come to read verses 13. That was associated with the waving of the sheep of first troops.

But in verse 17 and 18, 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 sheep of first troops marked the commencement of the barley harvest. But the fiftieth day, spoken of here in parts of the Old Testament as the feast of wheat, in Exodus it's the feast of harvest, but in later rabbinical writings it is spoken of as the feast of Pentecost, 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 first troops. And then, seven weeks later, there was this feast of harvest. The bringing out of these two loaves baked, not only with new meals, but a new type of meal offering.

A meal offering the like of 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 field.

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, where 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 tabernacles. Now when we come to the New Testament, we have clear indication that these were not only commemorative, 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.

Christ Our Passover and the Fulfillment of the Feasts

Purge out therefore the old lamp, old leaven, that ye may be a new lamp, even as ye are unleavened. 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 12, and as commemorated by Israels 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 is of this and to this that I referred this morning, when I quoted to you Matthew 26 and verse 2, 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 unto the palace of the high priest, 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 Lord 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 2. 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.

The Resurrection as the Firstfruits

Christ's death. In chapter 15 of this same epistle to the Corinthians, the apostle refers to the resurrection of Christ in these words. In verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that fled.

So that in Christ and his crucifixion, the Passover has been fulfilled. And in Christ and his resurrection, the waiting of the sheep of firstfruits, that has been fulfilled. And I want you to notice again the days.

Not the date. The date was flexible. The date of the Passover was six. But not the date of the waiting of the sheep. The day of the week was six for them. 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 on her way to the place where she knew the body of the Lord Jesus had been plagued.

And those that were with her, they discussed, who shall roll away the stone for 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 desk. 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 stone 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, a 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. Certainly Adventists try to tell us that it was Constantine who changed the worship, the day for worship among Christians.

They try to tell us that in apostolic days they worshiped on the Sabbath day, and that the Sabbath day, this Saturday, is the day. Now, we'll grant that for a moment, for argument's sake. But I wonder whoever put the first day of the week back into the book of Moses.

Constantine certainly had nothing to do with putting that into Leviticus 23. The morrow after the Sabbath, long before Constantine was ever dreamt of. Way back in the days of Moses, God made it clear that the resurrection was going to be on the first day of the week.

Christ's Ascension and Exaltation

Then we have the seven weeks that followed. For the 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, on that very day's head.

Then as we read this morning, five or six times over, in the compass of eleven verses, Luke refers to the ascension of Christ. I glanced through this book tonight to see if I could find a hymn book, a hymn rather, that would tell me, could we sing something about the ascension of Christ in it.

And I've been disappointed. We'll have to get that thing from Tyler's 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 meant 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.

Jeremy Smith wrote one, and he said, Rise, my soul, behold, it's Jesus. Jesus fills thy wondering eyes. See him now in glory, seated where thy sins no more can rise. There in righteousness transcendent, lo, in heaven he hath appeared.

Show the blood of his atonement as thy titles be there. And in the hymn books that you use here when you need 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 68 times in the New Testament.

It's woven into the very warp and woof of the whole fabric of New Testament revelation, 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 ascension to the fact of Christ's ascension to glory.

Even in the book of the Acts, in chapter one, there are at least three or four different words used there to tell us about his ascension to go to glory. He was received up for a wonderful reception, our Lord must have said, when he went to glory.

Do you remember what a wonderful reception the prodigal had when he came home? The father said that my son was lost in his tongue. Let it be merry, for whoever, however, who can ever measure the joy that must have filled the courts of glory, for the Lord Jesus was received back in all the honours of the triumphant victory over all the hosts infernal.

What a day of rejoicing that was in our Lord's ascended glory. Some interpret Psalm 24 in the light of it. I hardly think it really refers to that. It refers, I have no doubt, to his coming again and coming glory.

But many do. I remember hearing the late Dr. James M. Gray, the one who wrote that hymn which you sang tonight, I'm Only a Sinner Saved by Grace, telling us and explaining Psalm 24 in connection with the exaltation and the ascension of our Lord.

Christ's Victory Over the Powers of Darkness

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 24, the Lord went with the two to Emmaus.

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 crossed, carried as it were, in the cloud of the 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 withstood Gabriel as 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. And the Lord's ascension, he ascended up on high.

He led to Pyrrhic captives. There he ascended as a conqueror. The New Testament uses other language. Peter in the Decemtricon said, being by the right hand of God exalted. Paul goes even further, and he says, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, and adds in the epistle to the Ephesians, that God not only raised him from the dead, but set him at his own right hand, far above all principalities and powers.

The Gospel of Christ's Glory and Present Intercession

Christ is in glory. This is the great message of the gospel. This is a 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, and says, John, in writing his gospel, 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 petition. 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, says 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 me, as a young Christian, nearly fifty years ago, tossed 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 who was ministering on that occasion.

Young men, Christ is your representative at the right hand of the majesty on high. Christ is in glory today, your representative. He is there to look after your interests in the glory. He has 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 2 and verse 1, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the fiftieth day was fully come, when the morrow after the seventh Sabbath was fully come.

Pentecost as the Earthly Answer to Christ's Exaltation

Here's another first day of the week. The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost 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 Pentecost 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 not 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 hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. And I want you to turn with me for a moment to Psalm 118. Psalm 118. Here is a psalm which brings before us some of the events connected with the cross and the coming of our Lord.

The Rejected Stone Becomes the Headstone

Verse 22. The stone which the builders rejected, refused, is become the headstone of the corner. Now, Peter on the day of, not on the day of Pentecost, but as recorded in Acts chapter 4, Peter quotes those words, and he applies those words very definitely to those to whom he was addressing his words.

He says in chapter 4 and verse 8, the rulers of the people and elders of Israel, and after telling them about crucifying his Son, crucifying the Lord Jesus, verse 10, Be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucify, verse 11, this is the stone which hath said not to you, builders, that the rejection of Christ.

Christ was rejected, but he goes farther. 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 were all hewed and cut and trimmed in the quarry.

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 remember. 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 have rolled down to the valley, down the valley of Hinnom, and there it became covered with the debris, and at last they came to the place where they needed the headstone of 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 had rolled down, and they went to look for it, and there was the rejected stone, and they brought it up, and it fitted in.

It was the headstone. He said, 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.

The Coming King and the Day of Exaltation

This is marvelous, he says in Psalm 118. This is the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous in our eyes. Now look at verse 26. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Now in Matthew 23, as well as in Luke's Gospel, this word is quoted by the Lord Jesus.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I have gathered you as a hen would gather her little brood of chickens. But you would not. Your house is left unto you deathly, and you will not see me hence forward, 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 118 and verse 26. So you've got the crucifixion in verse 22. You've got the exaltation in the second half of verse 22. You've got the coming manifestation of Christ in glory in verse 26.

But now look with me at verse 24. This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it, at 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 and glorified.

This is the day the Lord has made. It's marvellous in our eyes that the one who was crowned with thorns in ignominy and shame when God got us free is now in glory, crowned with honour and with glory. Oh, what a wonder the psalmist exhaustingly cries out, this is marvellous in our eyes.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us be glad in it. Let us gladden. Let us rejoice in this great act that our Lord is in glory. In the epistle to 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, not 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 senators 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 very Pentecost was fully come, the spirit came, being by the right hand of God's exalted, he had shed forth this which we now, which you 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? Shall 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 thee with thanksgiving tonight.

We thank thee for these red-lettered days in world history, days when events of such epochal character and consequences took place. When Christ died, when he was glorified, when he rose from the dead.

O 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 to glory.

Hallowed be thy name. Part us with thy blessing. In the name of the Lord Jesus.