Category Archives: Passover to Pentecost

Passover to Pentecost – Reflections

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Passover to Pentecost – Reflections

Writing Passover to Pentecost has been a challenge; to choose topics, study, and write fifty-six posts in approximately seventy days.  These are things that just stood out as I went through the process of doing this series.

  1. After reading the account of the first Passover and its requirements for participation, I see no problem with a local church having events that the general public is not invited too. In fact, I would encourage “family only” meetings.
  2. The biblical day and calendar is a completely different mindset. It is nice to think of starting your day with rest.
  3. Procedures and rules will take over when the power of the Holy Spirit is absent from church meetings.
  4. There should be days and times of the year that should be remembered and made special. The feast are celebration times that God ordained to have people stop and think of Him and what He has done us.
  5. Resting one day a week and like on feast days literally have two or more days in a row where you do no work, expect to reflect on the mercies of God.
  6. Pray and forgiveness
  7. Complaining, especially about miracles, is not a good thing. If it has anything to do with food (what the Lord has provided) it is really a good idea to just keep quiet.

Passover to Pentecost – Easter Morning Meetings

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Passover to Pentecost – Easter Morning Meetings         Week 3 Day 5

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning. Luke 24:1 (NIV)

Four different Gospel writings, four different writers giving their perspectives should give you four slightly different stories.  That is one reason the Easter story is believable.  These are the meetings that people had that are included in the “whole” story.

Women – The Women of the Resurrection add the human element to the story of Easter Sunday morning.  Having watched Joseph bury Jesus they realized that more could/should have been done.  They had appointments with the angels, possibly more than once.  The angel’s physical appearance should have left little doubt or added to the reality of their message that Jesus was alive, they had to tell the others, and they all needed to go to Galilee.  The meeting they had with Jesus makes perfect sense because I am sure the women were in shock from the angels, and Jesus wanted them clear in their resolve when they met with the “others.” I can imagine the meeting with the Eleven and the other people with them did not go well and they were labeled as hysterical.

Peter – This reference is one line from the disciples who ran back from Emmaus.  It is Luke 24: 34.  Apparently, after Peter and John ran to the empty tomb and left with a lot of questions, they separated and Peter was by himself.  Jesus must have shown Himself to Peter and talked with him.  This was not Peter’s re-installment as an Apostle.  My guess was it was a show of positive ministry, why?  Peter did not go out and hang himself like Judas did.  It would seem from the verse in Luke that he was not taken seriously either.

Guards – Their two appointments are important to the total story and are found in Matthew 28.  I did actually read a form of verse 15 several years ago in a Jewish publication (the body was stolen). (I do not have a reference for that last statement, I will add it if I find it again.)  Their first appointment started with a rolling stone because of an earthquake.  They took their meeting with the angel as deathly serious.  That leads to the second meeting they had that day and it was with the chief priest and elders, who were probably not too happy about having their Passover celebration interrupted.  It is interesting that they believed the eyewitnesses and acted accordingly.  It is a shame that their hard hearts would not allow them to change.

http://clipart.christiansunite.com/Easter_Clipart/The_Resurrection_Clipart/index3.shtml

Passover to Pentecost – Emmaus

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Passover to Pentecost – Emmaus         Week 3 Day 4

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus. Luke 24: 13 (NIV)

How many times have we read this story and been captivated by the miraculous events. A crucified Jesus appears to two disciples as they leave Jerusalem.  He teaches them the truth about Him, and then disappears as He breaks bread.  This story in Luke has twenty-three verses, that is the most of any single Easter Sunday story.  I added this story to the list of things to write about because it happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  I had it planned out and it was going to be cut and dry.

I have heard several times from different teachers that these men were simple going the wrong direction.  Emmaus is not on the way to Galilee and Jesus was just redirecting them.  That would have worked with the Cloud leading the people during the Exodus and I was happy:D  BUT!

I let my “teacher” nature kick in, then I thought about it as a writer, and suddenly I was not as happy as I had been.  The more I studied the deeper the questions got, and the less I liked MY answers.  Here are most of the questions:

  1. Where was Emmaus? (No, one knows. There are several possible sites.)
  2. Who was Cleopas? Who was the other disciple, could it have been Barsabbas or Matthias (Acts 1: 23)?  (In Scripture Cleopas is only mentioned once.)
  3. Why had they left? Family obligations or were they fearful or disillusioned?
  4. Had they been in the Upper Room and the Garden?
  5. Were they the only ones who had left the group?
  6. Why had only Peter and John gone to the tomb?
  7. Have I, in the last three weeks, covered any of the things He explained to them?
  8. Could this story be covered in any of the typology of the first or second Passover?
  9. Was He “going on” because He had others to reach?
  10. Who were the “others” when they got to the Eleven?
  11. Why did they finally recognize Him as He broke bread?
  12. Why did the Holy Spirit include this story in the Gospels?

I will try #11 and give an attempt at #12.  After several miles of walking and all the teaching they had gotten, they finally “got” they meaning of the manna or “Bread of Heaven.”  My hope is the Holy Spirit knew Theophilus (1:3) needed the encouragement that Jesus could work with doubt!

http://www.freebibleimages.org

Passover to Pentecost – Galilee and the Mountain

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Passover to Pentecost – Galilee and the Mountain         Week 3 Day 3

The disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Matthew 28: 16 (NIV)

Part of the message of angels to the women on Easter morning was “tell My disciples to go to Galilee.”  Jesus in talking to the women repeated those instructions to them.  These verses are in Matthew and Mark, John and Matthew actually place them in Galilee, but why Galilee?  There was one particular mountain in Galilee where Jesus wanted them to meet with Him, why?

The Book of Matthew may hold the answers.  In Chapter 4 he quotes a verse from Isaiah 9 about Galilee, this verse just adds to the rich prophecies from Jacob and Moses about the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali.  Their lands help to make up the area around the Sea of Galilee.

In Matthew 28 there seemed to be urgency in the reminders to leave Jerusalem and go to Galilee.  I think that Jesus knew Jerusalem was not a healthy place for them to be.  Them going to a place of relative safety mirrors when Father God had Moses change routes out of Egypt (Exodus 13:17).  After all, this was home territory for them and there were still disciples in the area.  (For more see Galilee.)

Mount Tabor may have been the mountain they were called to go too.  It may have been where Jesus was transfigured.  It is in the area where Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar’s territories come together.  It has a place in the stories of Deborah and Barak, and Gideon; plus it is mentioned in Psalms 89, Jeremiah 46, and Hosea 5.  Tabor, the city, was a Levitical city, but the Tabor in the story of Saul and the donkeys was a plain in Benjamin.   So this mountain would have been a great place to give the Great Commission so that “people living in darkness could see the light.”

∞ Jesus, thank You that You look out for us, and send us out to the nations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tabor

Passover to Pentecost – At the Start of Counting the Omer

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Passover to Pentecost – At the Start of Counting the Omer         Week 3 Day 2

He will bind up our wounds.2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Hosea 6: 1+2 (NIV)

‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ Luke 13:32 (NIV)

This “second day” in these passages would be Saturday in Passion Week.  This day is

Pumpkin seed and Wheat

tough to get excited about because Jesus was “dead” (See Easter 2015- Saturday) so people really are not sure what to do with it.  Jesus was busy, just not in a realm that we can see.

There still are important dates in these fifty days that I will highlight.  So we will spend the rest of the time thinking about Jesus’ actions and teachings that lead up to Pentecost, the birthday of the Church.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/pumpkin-seed-and-wheatdried-cereal-