Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20080521.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Leviticus: Fellowship With A Holy God
Part III: Acceptable Living Before A Holy God, Leviticus 11:1-27:34
M. Honoring God's Great Works In History
4. Honoring God's Gracious Institution Of The Church
(Leviticus 23:15-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. Some critics of Christianity have tried to claim the Church has no credible Hebrew Old Testament roots.
    2. Actually, the Church typologically fulfills Old Testament prophecy, one made by Israel's lawgiver, Moses, and even the composition and ministry of the Church is clarified by him in Leviticus 23:15-22 as follows:
  2. Honoring God's Gracious Institution Of The Church, Leviticus 23:15-22.
    1. Of Israel's three main feasts that all of her men were to attend, which feasts include Passover (and the Feast of Unleavened Bread), Pentecost and Tabernacles (cf. Deut. 16:16), Pentecost is the only one the Old Testament does not associate with a past event in Israel's history, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 206.
    2. Accordingly, in noting the close association the Leviticus 23:15-22 text observes between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Firstfruits, we see it predicted the institution and ministry of the Church:
      1. The "morrow after the Sabbath" in Leviticus 23:15 KJV refers to the day of the Feast of Firstfruits named in Leviticus 23:11, and "pentecost" is the Greek word for "fifty" to signify the fifty days that were to mark the Feast of Pentecost after the Day of the Firstfruits, cf. Leviticus 23:15-16; Ibid.
      2. Now, the Feast of Firstfruits we before learned typified the resurrection of Christ on the third day after He was crucified, which was Passover, cf. Leviticus 23:5, 11 with Luke 23:55-24:6.
      3. Hence, from Scripture, we discern the Feast of Pentecost predicted the institution of the Church:
        1. After Christ arose, He appeared to His disciples for forty days, giving many infallible proofs of His resurrection, instructing them more fully on the matters concerning the kingdom of God and predicting the Holy Spirit would empower them "not many days hence," Acts 1:1-3, 4-5, 8.
        2. When the Day of Pentecost arrived (Acts 2:1-4), the Holy Spirit came on the disciples, and marked the institution of the Church. This time of origin for the Church is secured by noting Jesus named the Church as being a future institution in Matthew 16:18, but that by Acts 2:47, it was in existence!
      4. Significantly, the Feast of Pentecost in Leviticus 23:15-22 has several striking typological symbols associated with it that reveal God's view on the structure and ministry of the Church (as follows):
        1. Two loaves of leavened bread, typifying sinful imperfection, were waved before the Lord, Lev. 23:15-20. This spoke of the Church's sinful imperfection on earth in its composition of Jews and Gentiles, the two loaves, but that their position in Christ makes them holy, Ephesians 2:11-22.
        2. Then, the full range of offerings (burnt, grain, drink, sin and fellowship offerings) were to be made with the waving of these loaves, Leviticus 23:18-20. This revealed that the full benefits of Christ's work on the cross is applied to believers in the Church era, be they Jew or Gentile, for they comprise the holy people of God in our age! (J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible, vol. I, p. 430).
        3. Pentecost was also to be a Sabbath of rest, indicating Christians in Christ are to rest from their own labors as they rely on God to do His will and work in their earthly lives, Lev. 23:21; Heb. 4:4-9, 10.
        4. A special reference to Pentecost is made regarding leaving the grain harvest gleanings for the needy, Lev. 23:22. The unusual placing of this call typologically shows God's will that the Church focus on the world's spiritual needs so that it aim to disciple all the nations, Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19-20.
Lesson: The Feast of Pentecost typologically predicted that the Church was instituted by the God of Moses, that it united Jew and Gentile positionally in Christ on the earth, that the full range of Christ's atonement blessings are applied to the Christian believer today and that the Church is to operate in God's will and works, with its special focus being on making disciples of the nations for Christ!

Application: (1) May we rejoice in the CREDIBILITY of the Church as typologically predicted by God in the Old Testament, (2) and function in (a) GOD'S HOLY life and service in His will, (b) partaking of the full spiritual blessings of our position in Christ, and (c) focusing on discipling the nations!