Dear Family,
Today is Tuesday, May 31, 2022, Day 3 of Week 7. This is the 45th Day in our Count to Pentecost.
We learn from Acts 1 that 40 days after the Wave Sheaf, Jesus ascended into heaven. He gave instructions in Acts 1 about what the disciples were to be doing until they received “power.” He told them they would be “baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”
Acts 1:4-5 (4) And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. (5) For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The disciples may have suspected that Jesus was referring to (v. 5,” not many days hence”) Pentecost, the Holy Day the Jews called Feast of Weeks, but Scripture is not clear. After 40 days with the resurrected Christ, they may have had some idea of the prophetic foreshadowing of that Holy Day. At any rate, the 11 disciples, along with other of Christ’s followers (about 120 altogether) obediently went to Jerusalem to “wait” as Christ had instructed.
Acts 1:12-14 (12) Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day’s journey. (13) And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. (14) these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.
As we obediently wait and Count to Pentecost, being in one accord in prayer and supplication seems very fitting for us today, also. Let us all pray with one accord that God manifests His will to us, and we become more and more aware of the power God has made available to us to do His will.
Ben Faulkner, Pastor
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