In this message we come to the fourth feast, the feast of Pentecost. This feast belongs to the first group of feasts, which includes the feast of the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of the firstfruits, and the feast of Pentecost.
These four feasts may be applied both to history and to our experience. The Passover was on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish year. On this day Jesus Christ was slain as our Passover. Whereas the Passover in the Old Testament was a type, Christ is the real Passover to us. He is the reality of the Passover, the fulfillment in history of the type of the Passover. The feast of the Passover was followed by the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of the firstfruits. Christ’s resurrection was the fulfillment of the feast of the firstfruits and is the reality of this feast. The feast of the firstfruits was followed by the feast of Pentecost.
These historical facts can be applied to us in our experience according to the history of Christ. In other words, what Christ has accomplished and achieved in His history can become our experience. This is why the first group of feasts can be applied in two ways-to Christ’s history and to our Christian experience.
When we were saved, we experienced the feast of the Passover. Because Christ was slain for us, God could pass over us. We thus enjoyed the reality of the Passover. What the Jews enjoyed in Egypt was merely a type; what we enjoy is the reality. This is a matter not only of Christ’s history but of our experience.
After we experienced the feast of the Passover, we began to enjoy Christ as our unleavened bread and to live an unleavened life. Christ is unleavened, sinless. With Him there is no sin. We can live such a life by being supplied and supported by Him.
In our experience we also enjoy Christ as our feast of the firstfruits. As the resurrected One, He is now living within us. Christ is not only the unleavened One but also the One who died and lived again and who lives forever. He lives within us as the firstfruit for our daily enjoyment.
The fourth feast, the feast of Pentecost, or the feast of weeks, took place seven weeks after Christ’s resurrection. The time from Christ’s resurrection to the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out from the heavens by the ascended Christ, was fifty days. Pentecost means fifty days. Christ’s resurrection was on the first day of the week. This day is also called the eighth day. Counting seven weeks from this day, we reach the fiftieth day, which was also a first day of the week and an eighth day. Christ rose up on the first day of the week, and the day of Pentecost took place also on the first day of the week.
After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus appeared to His disciples over a period of forty days (Acts 1:3). Although He would appear and then disappear, He never left the disciples. On the day of His resurrection. He appeared to them and breathed Himself as the life-giving Spirit into them (John 20:22), and from that time onward He was living not only among the disciples but also within them. The Lord’s appearing to the disciples simply means that He made His presence visible to them; it does not mean that He ever left them. The Lord’s appearing and disappearing was a training to the disciples. During those forty days after His resurrection, the Lord Jesus was training His disciples to realize and enjoy His invisible presence. Even though He was invisible, they could still appreciate and experience His invisible presence. Today the Lord Jesus is also with us and in us. We cannot see Him. But we believe that He is with us and in us.
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