A Day of Miracles
Pentecost 2019

My Dear Friends,

I wish that I could send each and every one of you a personalized and individualized greeting on this Feast of Pentecost.  May you have a peaceful, healthy and spiritually abounding Holy Day.

In today’s sermon we will be considering the meaning of the Feast of Pentecost.  What does Pentecost picture in the Plan of God?  We will also be looking at miracles and answering the question, what is a miracle of God?  A miracle takes place every time God suspends and overrides the laws of nature to do His will.  Do we have any idea of how busy God is – doing just that?

Beginning on the Day of Pentecost in the New Testament, God worked many, many miracles among the Church brethren.  On that front, absolutely nothing at all has changed.  Since that is the case, where are the many miracles today?  It has become all too common of a saying that God does not work miracles any more.  Some go so far as to say that prayers are not being answered.  Do not believe it.  God is constantly working in the lives of His saints for His purposes.  From earth moving events, down to the healing of a common cold, God is intricately and constantly involved in the lives of His people.  Even when God’s people are making plans for their lives, it is God who is bringing about the outcome according to His great purposes:

Proverbs 16:9  A man's heart devises his goings: but the Lord establishes his steps.

As members of the Body of Christ, God is bringing His Plan to reproduce Himself to fruition through us.  In doing so, He utilizes miracles—seen and unseen.  We, the Church brethren, will be a part the early firstfruits harvest that begins shortly after the Wave Sheaf offering and lasts up to the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16).  Pentecost shows clearly that God is working directly with His called out people at this time, while the outside world remains on its own until God works with them in a latter harvest—pictured by other Feast Days.

God very decisively made that first New Testament Pentecost a day of sights, sounds and miracles.  He did so purposefully so that the Church brethren would know positively that the promise of the Father’s Holy Spirit had come in a very special and powerful way.  These events are recorded in the Scriptures for the Church brethren to know assuredly how God is now working among His people.  The miracles are not as flamboyant today because men would be inclined to walk by sight and not by faith.

Make no mistake about it, God’s calling at this time is definitely a miracle in itself – though unseen by the world.  A Christian must look for the miracles that have touched his life.  Converted brethren recognize how unceasing God’s miraculous intervention is in their lives today.

Except for a few names from the Old Testament period, like righteous Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and the prophets, God is calling the firstfruits of the better resurrection at this time—in the period between the New Testament Day of Pentecost and the Pentecost when the last trumpet is sounded at the time of Christ’s return.

1Corinthians 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Thessalonians 4:16  The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

The fifty-day period between the Wave Sheaf offering and the Day of Pentecost pictures God's calling of the firstfruits—the Church brethren—to be given to the first of the firstfruits, Jesus Christ.  The Wave Sheaf offering begins the early harvest of which the Church brethren are a part.

Leviticus 23:11  And the priest shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Just as Jesus was accepted by His Father on the day of the Wave Sheaf offering, the resurrected Church brethren will be raised on the day of the Pentecost offering and presented to Jesus Christ (Leviticus 23:16-17; Revelation 19:9).

What greater miracle could God work in our lives than giving us of His Holy Spirit?  As Children of God we should expect and depend on God working miracles on our behalf (Luke 11:13; Psalm 84:11).  We should seek and expect His miracles every day!  Look for them, and acknowledge them as such.

In today’s sermon we will be looking at how God worked many, many miracles among the early Church brethren so that we are able to recognize His miraculous hand in our lives today.

Your brother in Christ,

Warren M. Zehrung
 

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Today's Sermon:  "A Day of Miracles - Pentecost 2019"  

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