The Weekend Bible Study - with Ronald L. Dart

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the goads. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will you have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told you what you must do.

And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him […] and were filled with indignation, And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.

But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.

And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord comes:

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Who also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.

Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.

One week from tomorrow is Pentecost, otherwise known as the Feast of Firstfruits. Traditionally, we have said that Pentecost pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit. It's not hard to figure out why, because on that first Pentecost of the church (a day often called the birthday of the New Testament church) the Holy Spirit was poured out in incredible power.

The description of those events in Acts 2 is enough, even 2,000 years later, to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck and marvel at what that might have been like. There was a great noise like a tornado that filled the room, and fire descended—shimmering sheets of fire through the ceiling and across the top of the room, then a tongue that descended upon each of those present. That must have been incredible, and one can only imagine. I don't think they expected it; I can't imagine they did. There's not a hint that they had a clue as to what was going to take place on that day. We've talked a lot about that over the years, and of course, the natural presumption then is that Pentecost pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

However, there's a scripture back in John 20 that I'm frequently asked about relative to this entire question. It poses a puzzler. In John 20:19, after Jesus had risen from the dead and presented himself to his disciples, we're told The same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be unto you. When he had said it, he showed them his hands and his side, and his disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Then Jesus said to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained.

Now, there are myriad questions that arise from this—the questions about the remission of sin, the questions of the retention of sin, just how much authority did he grant to them, and what it meant is all of interest. But of special interest today is the question: If they received the Holy Spirit at this time (which was nearly 50 days prior to Pentecost) why do we look at the Feast of Pentecost and say that it pictures the receiving of the Holy Spirit? Was this event merely symbolic? Some people believe that it was—that nothing actually happened at this time, that it was a symbolic act, and that the actual receiving of the Holy Spirit would not take place until the day of Pentecost. Yet there's really nothing here to tell you that that's what happened. So, was it symbolic, or did something actually happen? Is there significance in the difference between Jesus in a room with his disciples, touching them and breathing on them, and saying, Receive ye the Holy Spirit, on the one hand, and this incredible outpouring of power that took place on the other?

The days between Passover and Pentecost were heady days for the first disciples. Jesus had been raised from the dead after they thought he was gone forever. They were joyful beyond belief. Down through the generations all sorts of people have tried to duplicate that excitement of the Pentecost. The problem is it's all been artificial, contrived, manipulated. But man-made excitement is temporary, and when the excitement is gone it may leave depression behind as a legacy. What the disciples were feeling during this period of time was certainly nothing like man-made excitement. They had a joy that I don't think we quite can understand. They also had a challenge before them of enormous proportions.

I want to come today to four ideas that we need to take a look at, instead of just looking for some sort of excitement. They form a neat acronym: C.O.P.E.. These ideas, frankly, can transform your life and can also turn your church around in its tracks, if you just understand what is meant by these four words.

(Apologies for the relatively poor audio of this message. Use the yellow bar at the top of this page & request a free emailed/printed transcript to help you follow along.)

If you could have lived during the time of Christ, would you have wanted to be close to him? Would you have wanted to be with him? I think it's fair to say that, by the time of the 40 days between Christ's resurrection and ascension, his disciples were close to Jesus. After all they had been through, and the experiences they had shared, they had come to the point were they were quite close. Those three-and-a-half years of Jesus' ministry probably were not particularly easy times. Would you have wanted to be one of those people? If so, why?

Hello everyone and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries Weekend Bible Study. It is good to be with you and we thank you for being there and allowing us to make this weekly service possible.

Over the past few weeks, we've followed Ron Dart in taking a closer look at the Passover, the resurrection of Christ, and the beginning of the countdown to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. As we find commanded in Leviticus 23:

From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain...a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.

This weekend concludes the fourth of those seven weeks, so tonight we'll join Mr. Dart in examining this time of year and its accompanying harvest—both of grain and of men.