Well, this is a special month because this is the month of Pentecost. As of June 8th, it's been 50 days after Resurrection Sunday, and that's why it's named Pentecost, because that means 50, and the 50th day after the first Sunday after the Passover took place, you counted down seven weeks of seven days plus one. Number seven is the number of completion. And so the work of God was completed and done and then ushers in a brand new day, a new beginning. And I want to talk about the new beginning here that we have to think about. Ezekiel 38 verse 11 talks about God coming down at a time when Israel dwells safely at rest in peace in unwalled cities and unbarred windows. And I love to ask the question, when has Israel ever been at peace in unwalled cities without bars on the windows? I was listening to a Jewish prophetic teacher the other night, and he was describing how today's events are fulfillment of Ezekiel 38. And I was pointing out to our group why he's wrong. It's obvious that he's wrong. They're 100% wrong. Why do you want to follow people who are 100% wrong as of today? Well, because tomorrow they might be right, okay. Someday they will be right when it finally happens. But as of now, they're 100% wrong with 100% track record of being wrong. Anyway, this guy was talking about how Israel's dwelling safely in the land. Because it's the Iron Dome, it's not walls. Well, why do they have an iron dome? Because they're not dwelling safely in the land. So that is not the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38. When will Israel ever be at peace in the world? Only when Satan's kingdom is destroyed. There's no other time in history that Israel will ever be at peace because as long as Israel exists, Satan will be on a rampage to destroy Israel. That is his whole mission right now. He will be always attacking Israel and will never give up. In other words, there will never be rest. in Israel until Christ comes and destroys the kingdom of Satan. And then we say, when does that happen? Armageddon. Armageddon is the destruction of the kingdom of Satan. That's when the peace of Israel comes. That's what it means to pray for the peace of Israel. That's Armageddon. Because once the kingdom of Christ is established, there's peace. for just the beginning of the thousand years, and then after that, the new heavens, new earth, it's all peace. The only time Ezekiel 38 can be fulfilled is when Israel is at peace, dwelling safely in unwalled cities, and that will never happen until the millennial reign, which means then the battle of Golgotha, as Revelation 20, verse eight points out, That's the battle when all evil is destroyed from the face of the earth and all of creation. And then we usher in the new heavens and new earth. That's the only time that can be fulfilled. So Ezekiel 38 has to be, can only be fulfilled after the millennial reign. It's the only time. Because Israel will never dwell safely in the land until the millennial reign. That's the battle of Gog. And if you wanna see an interesting correlation between Ezekiel 38 reference to Gog and Revelation chapter 20 verse eight, Gog. Revelation 20 verse eight is the only time in the Bible that gives a timestamp of when that battle takes place. It's not in Ezekiel 38, there's no timestamp there. The only timestamp is at the end of a thousand years, Satan rises up. God, from me, God comes and battles against Christ and is destroyed. That's the destruction of all evil. Armageddon is the destruction of Satan's kingdom. And that's why you have Armageddon, and then you have the battle of God. And that's how they accomplish two different things. Once you get a hold of the proper timeline of how things unfold, you begin to realize that all the prophecies in the Old Testament are much like what was written in Hebrews chapter 10. about the law and the prophets, that they are a shadow, not the very things, a shadow of the real thing to come. All the battles and skirmishes and wars that take place in the world, especially in the Middle East and surrounding Israel, all of those events are shadows. They'll never be the real thing until Armageddon. That's the peace of Israel. and the battle of Gog at the end of the millennial reign. That's the only time. Everything else, all other wars and skirmishes are shadows of things to come. And that's what we're waiting for. Now, I blew the shofar, that's appropriate because we're talking about things, all things Israel, but this is the month of Pentecost. We're celebrating or have celebrated that June 8th has already passed by. That was 50 days after Resurrection Sunday. But let's look at Acts 2, verses 1 through 11, because it tells about this special day when all the Jewish men from around the world at the time gathered in Jerusalem, coming from all over the world by command of God. And it says in Acts chapter 2 verse 1, And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And then it says in verse 2, And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Now, I'm going to be talking about proof, power, and Pentecost this morning. And so I'm not going to get into the details of the cloven tongues of fire and the expression of tongues on that day. But verse 5 continues and says, and they were dwelling at Jerusalem, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now, verse 9 tells us where a lot of these guys came from. They were Parthenians, Medes, Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya, about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome. Jews and proselytes, they were all in obedience according to God's command. All the males were coming down to Jerusalem, or up to Jerusalem as usually it's referred to, up to Jerusalem. And in verse 11, it says, the Cretan Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues, in our tongues, our dialect, what we're accustomed to, what we grew up each individually, the wonderful works of God. Now that's how you know you're really hearing the works, the tongues of God, when it glorifies the works and words of God. It's not self-attention. Well, the Jews from all over the world, as we just saw from all these different places, all gathered together. The day of Pentecost is a day of new beginnings. Why is that? Well, partly we know that because the number seven is the time of completion. We got seven weeks plus one day. There was a completion of God's work after Resurrection Sunday and then a brand new day. It's like Sunday every week. You finish the seven days of the week and that ends on Saturday and then a new beginning. Sunday. All of this is portrayed and explained in various scriptures. Now let's rewind a little bit and go to Acts chapter 1. In Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 5, what did Jesus do between the resurrection and the day of Pentecost? Usually the story ends, and he was raised. But there were all kinds of things happening in between that time. What was going on during that time after the resurrection? Well, in verse 1, this is Luke writing. He wrote the book of Acts as he did in the book of Luke, named after him. It says, The former treatise, my previous letter, what we call the Book of Luke, have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up. After that, he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. a treatise. What is a treatise? A treatise is just a formal declaration of these things happened and Luke had written down a formal treatise, a record of the accounts of the life of Jesus and the things Jesus taught. Now Luke goes on in Acts chapter 1 verse 3, he says, to whom also to his disciples, to those around during that time, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion. After his passion, that is, after that great crisis, that day of crucifixion, after his passion, by many infallible proofs. What's infallible? It means it's indisputable. There's no doubt about it. Not that people don't debate it anyway, right? But it is indisputable. Being seen of them 40 days. Oh hey, for 40 days Christ was presenting infallible proof of his resurrection. For 40 days. and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. In verse four it says, and being assembled together with them, oh, Christ is with them, assembled, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait, he says, I want you to wait. Wait for what? For the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. Now, how many days do you think Jesus made them wait? And what do you think the promise was? After the resurrection, Jesus continued to show himself for 40 days, teaching about the kingdom of God. All right, we got that in mind. He was showing them infallible proofs that he was alive. And we know that's indisputable proof. So what do you think is the most and the best infallible proof? What do you think that would be? Here I am, guys, I'm alive. I mean, can you think of anything better than that? You don't have to go to a court in law and get witnesses and testimonies. I saw him, I heard him say this, and hey, there's evidence of his footprints, and it measures the same way. No, he just stood there and said, here I am. You can't get more infallible than that, can you? You want to see proof that I'm alive? Here I am. There, that's the infallible proof. And for 40 days, he was proving to them by showing him and talking to them. I'm here guys, John chapter 20, verse 19. Then the same day at even, the same day as the resurrection, he had been resurrected at the beginning of the day. This is towards the end of the day. It says being the first day of the week, that's Sunday. When the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, these guys were not bold at this time. They were running for fear of their life. They saw Jesus whom they followed and what the Jews did to them, and they thought, well, as he goes, so go we. in more ways than one, that's right. But they were afraid for their life and they had good reason at the time. And they were hiding out, but Jesus came and stood in the midst and saith unto him, infallible proof, guys. He said, peace be unto you. You can't get better proof than that. Now the same day, refers to Jesus having been raised up. And there were a lot of things that happened on that particular day. Jesus is raised up. Now here's what happens. That day begins with an earthquake in Matthew chapter 28 verse 2. The earthquake and then an angel rolled away a stone. For example it says, and behold there was a great earthquake for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. That's significant because the women when they went out to to take care of his body and wrap it with wrappings and perfumes. They were wondering, who's going to roll back the stone? Well, God already took care of it. The angel rolled the stone away already for him. Now, at that particular event, the next event was the guards fainted. It says in Matthew 28, verses 3 and 4, his countenance was like, talk about the angel, his countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and become as dead men. They fell away in faint. Now, between that time of fainting and our next event when the women go out early in the morning, the guards wake up because they're not there when the women show up. So that's the next event. At some point the guards wake up and they run to tell the Jewish leaders what had happened. It says, now when they were going, behold, some of the watch, referring to guards, came into the city and showed unto the priests all the things that were done. Now, I don't know if they sat around taking a little time thinking about this. You know, this is our neck, guys. We're in big trouble when they find out he's gone. Not everyone, not all the guards went. It says some of them went. After that, Coming into Sunday morning, the women see the stone was already rolled away. And that's Luke chapter 24 verse 2. And then the next event after that, they discover that the tomb was empty. Oh yeah, I make a distinction here. that, hey, they saw the stone rolled away, but that doesn't mean they didn't go in and see whether the body was there or not. Nope, the tomb was empty, John 20, verse one. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early when it was dark, yet dark, under the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple. Now, what Mary's doing, she's separated from the other women that had gone. Now, here's what happened. All the women, including Mary, they all went to the tomb. And Mary's looking around saying, the tomb is empty. Hightails it off, and the other women stand around trying to figure out what's going on and engage in conversation with the angel. And so while Mary's running off to tell the disciples, the angel is talking to the remaining women, Luke chapter 24, verses five and six, and says, why seek ye the living among the dead? He's not here, but he's risen. And in Matthew 28, seven, eight, go and go quickly and tell the disciples that he's risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. So basically, then the angel tells the ladies, go tell the disciples I'm going to meet them in Galilee. Oh, that gives us a clue where he's going to see them. In the meantime, Mary's already hightailing it over to where the disciples are in John chapter 20 verse 2. It says, then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, and saith unto them, they've taken away the Lord out of the sepulcher. And we know not where they have laid him. And so the next event, Peter and John hightail it down to the tomb. They got to see it for themselves, because they were scoffing at the ladies at Mary. No, that can't be. But then the women come and follow up and corroborate her story and say, hey, the tomb is empty. His body's gone for sure. Well, Simon and John make it to the tomb, and sure enough, they see for themselves that the body's gone. In the meantime, Mary stays behind, and the two guys take off, scratching their head, trying to figure out what's going on. In John 20, verse 16, now we begin to see the appearance of Jesus since His resurrection. And Mary is the first one He comes to, because she's sticking around the tomb. In John 20, verse 16, it says, Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself and saith unto him, Rabboni. Recognizing, well, she thought it was the gardener in the garden, but now she realizes it's Jesus. And she goes to grab his feet and to worship him. And he says, don't touch me, not yet. Now, after that, he goes up to heaven to present himself to the father. And then after that, he appears to the other women. So it doesn't take long. I mean, how long does it take for Christ to present himself to the father? So as the other women now are making their way over to the house where the other disciples are, they go tell the disciples, Jesus is certainly gone. We don't know where he is. Now, late that afternoon, so that's a lot of scurrying around. Jesus sees Mary. He is seeing the women and tells them and gives them instruction to go and talk to the disciples, tell them I'm gonna meet them up there in Galilee. Now, later that afternoon, In Luke chapter 24, verse 13, it says, and behold, two of them, two of the disciples, went that same day to the village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. Which gives us an idea, if we use that, a little speculation here, if we use that as where the house was located. I mean, the disciples more than likely are not staying in town. It's a little too dangerous for them. They're afraid for their life. They're staying somewhere else. It could be Emmaus. Maybe that's where these two guys, I'm saying maybe that's where these two guys are going. That's about two hours away, walking distance. And so that gives us a little idea about the time interval and the traveling and the walking and the running that was going on between the tomb and where the house was and getting the message to the disciples. Now that was late afternoon. Now we're into the evening. John chapter 20 verse 9. It says, Jesus appeared to the disciples. It says, then the same day at evening came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. But Thomas was not in the room at the time and did not see Jesus. Oh, you know what? Jesus said, I'm going to meet them in Galilee. You know what's been happening since that time? The women made it to the house there. John and Peter had already told the guys, hey, it's true. The women are right. The women follow up with what Mary has said and said, the angel told us, Jesus is going to meet you in Galilee. Guess where they're meeting? They're up in Galilee now. They spent the day walking up to Galilee. In John chapter 20, verse 26, we have eight days later, eight days. So that's gonna be next Monday. He was raised on Sunday, eight days later, we're gonna have Monday. And after eight days again, the disciples were within and Thomas was with them. Now, the first meeting up in Galilee, Christ had come to them in a closed room Thomas was not there, but everyone else got to see Jesus and talk with him. Thomas comes by and they tell him, we saw Jesus. And he says, there's no way guys, there's no way you're gonna convince me of this unless I actually see the Prince in his hand and put my hand in his side where the spear went. Doubting Thomas, that is the nickname that he got because of that. Well, Jesus came eight days later, presented himself and said, infallible proof, Thomas, there's my hands here, put your hand to my side. So it says in verse 27, John 20, 27, then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing, believing, believing. infallible proof. And Thomas answered and saith unto him, My Lord and my God. And he fell down and worshipped at his feet. He was convinced, verse 29, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. You've seen the infallible proof. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet they believe. Hey, he's speaking about us. We've not seen Jesus come in here in physical form and say, there's my hand. But you know what? He's given us faith. That is the clear revelation from God that this indeed has happened and Christ is alive. And it confirms it in our hearts. On another occasion, Jesus met with Jesus on the shore. Jesus met with the disciples on the shore after they had been trying to catch fish all night long. And that's where you have that wonderful statement. Peter realizes it's the Lord and he doesn't wait to row the boat in. He goes leaping into the water and swimming over there to the shore to see Jesus. That's the kind of zeal that Peter has, and really the kind of zeal we ought to all have. Even if we don't have that personality, there ought to be that drive within us. It's Jesus, and that's where I want to be. Now, let's talk about Pentecost then a little bit. I gave you the rundown on some of the events. In other words, there was a lot going on for 40 days. And he was showing them, showing people that he was, yes, indeed, alive. For 40 days that was going on. Pentecost is 50 days after the resurrection. He's been showing himself to them for 40 days. How many days did they have to wait before they could do what Jesus wanted them to do? To see the promise of the Father. He said, wait until you receive the promise of the Father. Ten days. You see, 40 days he showed himself and then he's not showing himself anymore. That's the last time he talks to them and they see him go up in the air. And the angel says, what are you standing around waiting for? Go do what he told you to do. Well, he said, wait. Okay, well then wait. So they're waiting for 10 days. And in 10 days, that was the day of Pentecost. Between day 40 and day 50, there was 10 days. And that's when all the males of Judaism came to attend the festival, the Feast of Pentecost. And as I mentioned before, that 50th day is the day after seven weeks. Seven weeks plus one day. In other words, it's the first day of the new beginnings. And guess what happened on the day of Pentecost? It was the beginning of the New Testament church. The beginning of its empowerment, the beginning of its mission, the beginning of its work. How do we know that? Because Jesus said, wait until you receive the promise, the promise of the Father. What was the promise of the Father? When we stop to think about it a little bit, we begin to realize that wait was very significant. It was more significant than most people realize. In Acts 1, verse 4, Jesus says, and being assembled together with them, he 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. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. The response of the disciples was this, Lord, are you bringing your kingdom in? Is that the promise? Because that's the promise of God, right? They've been waiting for it since the time of Moses. The kingdom of God is coming. And Jesus said, in verse 6, it says, gives the question, when they therefore will come together, they asked of him saying, Lord, will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And verse seven, he saith unto them, is not for you to know the time of seasons, which the father hath put in his own power. Here's the promise that Jesus gave to them. It's in verse eight. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. That is what they were waiting for. That kicks off the ministry of and the empowerment of the New Testament church on a brand new beginning after the completion of the seven weeks. Now, let me clarify here, and I have to do this because it's a big debate among many, but the beginnings of the church, it began before the foundation of the world in God's mind. And then he starts gathering and collecting. It's like birth. And you go through the embryonic development period, and then finally there's birth. There's preparation, there's training. All of this is a beginning. There's a sealing of the covenant with Christ's blood for the New Testament on the cross. And then there is the empowerment, and that's when the church kicked off its mission to do God's work God's way. So you can say, yeah, there's multiple points of beginning for the church, but this is when the kickoff was, and this is when Christ said, you wait for that day and then get to work. That's the significance of the day. So, wrapping it up here, in Acts chapter two, verse 14, Peter tells us what that day was all about. Now, they've been observing Pentecost every year. The Jews still observe Pentecost. But there was something very unique and different about this Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Peter explains it this way, and now we're getting back into Old Testament prophecy, which we start out with because Brother Mitch stimulated this. Acts 2, verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words. For these are not drunken as ye suppose, because that, of course, that was part of the criticism. What are these crazy people doing out here? They're not drunk, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. We're just starting out the day, it's morning. He says, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. This day, this 50th day after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, not 2000 years later, not 50 years later, not 2 million years later, but on that 50th day after Jesus was resurrected, Peter said, what you are seeing today is fulfillment of the prophet Joel. Verse 17, he says, and it shall come to pass in the last days. This is the prophecy of Joel that is being fulfilled in your ears today before your eyes. It shall come to pass in the last days. saith God, I will pour out 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 all my servants and all 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 come. and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Brethren, there's a lot here, but here's the main point. We've been in the last days for over 2,000 years. We're not waiting for the last days. We have been in the last days, and we're further at the end of the last days than when it began. According to the inspiration God gave to Peter. Now we know how to understand the prophecy of Joel and our time, our days. Pentecost was not the end of the story either. It was just the beginning to the end. And we're waiting for the end of Joel's prophecy. We're living in the midst of Joel's prophecy right now. It began the 50th day after Jesus' resurrection, and we're still in the fulfillment of that prophecy, waiting until the sun darkens, the moon turns blood to blood, and Christ establishes His reign. And when does Christ establish His kingdom? Revelation 11, 15 tells us. that at Armageddon, at the sound of the last trumpet, all the kingdoms on this earth are become the kingdoms of our Lord. And not a moment sooner will His kingdom come. Well, if it's not the kingdom of Satan until Armageddon, whose kingdom is it? Satan's. This is Satan's world. He is the God of this world. He rules this world. And that's why there will never be peace in Israel until Armageddon. Because Satan will not stop attacking until he is attacked and destroyed. The bottom line is this, until the Lord returns, we have a job to do. We have a commission, the Great Commission. This is our single most important task. This is what we're all about. And this brings up, kicks off the next lesson, which I started last night. And that is, what unifies us as a church, as a body, as a people? Our mission. Because it doesn't matter how different we are, what our differences in backgrounds or personalities or anything else. When we have the same mission on our mind, we work together. Why? Because we are doing that which is greater than ourselves. We have a job to do and we need to do it together. Amen. We're glad you joined us for our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. If this program has helped you and you would like to have more information about trusting Christ as your Lord and Savior, or if you would like to have resources to help you in your spiritual walk and growth, please email us at the address on your screen. We look forward to having you join us again online, but you are always welcome to personally attend any of our services at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hi, this is Dr. Patrick Briney. I hope and pray this important lesson has improved your life. For more life-changing lessons, and to get your free book that I've written for you, visit my website at patrickbriney.com. And please share this valuable lesson with at least three of your friends, to enrich their lives in our Lord Jesus Christ. I'll upload my next lesson for you soon. God Bless.