'40 Day Teachings & Pentecost'
- Parallel to 40 days of Moses on Sinai
- Giving 'New Law' at time of law-giving
- Pentecost newly represents giving of Higher Law
- Peter preaches that Jesus is not just the Christ, but Jehovah
Come Follow Me
LDS Mormon New Testament Acts Bible
in this episode we're going to talk
about the 40 days teaching and Pentecost
here we go all right so here we are now
after the Gospels after the resurrection
of Jesus Christ we now move on to the
book of Acts a little bit of background
on this in the sequence of books that go
into the New Testament we of course have
first the four Gospels Matthew then mark
then Luke then John and then we move on
here to the book of Acts something to
consider is that the first three Gospels
the synoptic Gospels were at first the
only three Gospels so he had Matthew
Mark and Luke and then you would have
had acts which would make sense because
more than likely Acts was also written
by Luke and would have been viewed more
as one book so it would have been the
Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts that
would have been combined together but
what may have happened after that is
that you had the Gospel of John which
was written later after the other
Gospels and it because it is a gospel it
is about the life of Jesus Christ
it was then put in at the end being that
it was the last one written and put in
between the book of Luke and may
have divided it at that point and put
the Gospel of Luke first and then put in
the second half of that book which is
the book of Acts so the book of Acts is
most likely written by Luke as well the
other thing to remember is that the book
of Acts is the last bit of storyline
that we
have in the New Testament everything
else really we have Matthew Mark Luke
all of Luke including Acts and John are
the only storyline really that we get
about the life of Christ and about the
early church everything else is going to
be mostly letters that are written
epistles that are written where we pull
in facts and ideas and get an idea of
what's going on with the church and of
course different doctrine that the
authors of those epistles are writing
and then of course we cap it off with
what was more likely written prior to
the Gospel of John and that is the book
of Revelation and where we have the
revelation that it was given to John and
the vision that he had about the church
about the future etc so here keeping
that in mind we can look at Luke and
kind of sometimes refer in the book of
Acts back to Luke and get an idea of
more of a cohesive piece of work that is
going on there but right off the bat
here in the book of Acts we get a couple
of very important things that bring our
minds back to the higher and the lower
laws we get reminded here by Luke about
what is happening here with Christ now
having come and lived and died and
resurrected and the new law the new
covenant being put into place which is
the fullness of the gospel and the
fullness of the priesthood the fullness
of the Melchizedek Priesthood which
includes the temple teachings and the
temple ordinances and so Luke brings us
right away to the 40 days teachings this
is a very interesting part of the New
Testament because it's interesting not
because of what it says it's interesting
because of what it does not say we get
an introduction here about these 40 days
that apparently Jesus had returned after
he was resurrected
and spent these 40 days with the
Apostles probably at least Peter James
and John and giving them the teachings
of the fullness of the gospel let's go
to verse 3 here and listen to what
Luke has to say about this to whom also
he shewed himself alive after his
passion or his suffering by many
infallible proofs being seen of them
forty days and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God now if
you've been listening to this podcast
you know that when we talk about the
kingdom of God we are talking about the
church in the gospel and its fullness
primarily with the fullness of the
Melchizedek Priesthood that's the royal
priesthood which would go along with
this phrase the kingdom of God so the
royal priesthood is the authority that
would go with a kingdom or the kingdom
of God and so Luke here is specifying
what is being taught in those 40 days
it's the things of the higher law it is
the things that have to do with the
Melchizedek Priesthood which includes
the temple and many other things and
Luke follows up then in verse 5 and says
and again here's where we get that split
between John the Baptist and Jesus
Christ and the Holy Ghost
one being the baptism of the lower law
the ironic baptism and one being that of
the Holy Ghost the baptism of the Holy
Ghost he says here in verse 5 for John
truly baptized with water but ye shall
be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence so he's talking about what's
going to happen here with Pentecost and
the outpouring of the spirit more than
likely but again a distinction here a
clear distinction that Luke wants to
make between the two different baptisms
that we still have today the baptism of
water and the baptism of the laying out
of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost
one is an erotic ordinance and one is a
Melchizedek or
and this is all about the Melchizedek
ordinance and the Melchizedek Priesthood
or the kingdom of God being restored and
then in verse 6 he says when they
therefore were come together they asked
of him saying Lord wilt thou at this
time restore again the Kingdom of Israel
so restore he's saying restore restore
from when well from a previous time will
you restore the fullness of the gospel
at this time and then Jesus says you
don't it's not given to you to know all
of the seasons so in other words I'm not
going to tell you exactly when
everything is going to happen but that
you are going to in verse 8 but ye shall
receive power after that the Holy Ghost
has come upon you and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth again that
is a Melchizedek Priesthood reference
when we're talking about all of the
Gentiles because the Melchizedek
Priesthood does not have a lineage like
the Aaronic priesthood does but that is
all that Luke gives us in regards to the
40 days teachings that they have
something to do with the kingdom of God
and so you have Martin Luther for
example who says this is the most
perplexing part of the entire Bible
because he says this but then we don't
have the actual teachings that he gave
to the Apostles for 40 days you'd think
those are probably something that are
pretty important now perhaps they were
all held back and there were things that
were too sacred to put into writing or
perhaps they had been lost over time as
the church changed and started to fall
into apostasy and different sects
started to claim the knowledge of these
40-day teachings because that's what
happened and this exact passage here and
the teachings that were apparently
taught at this time were a big point of
conflict for the entire church because
what would happen for example is the
Gnostics came in
and they claim that the knowledge that's
what Naz Gnosticism means the knowledge
the knowledge that they had was all
about the 40 days teaching of Jesus and
other groups would break off and say
that they had a knowledge of what was
taught during the 40 days and so this
became a very big talking point and a
point of conflict between these splinter
groups that broke off from the original
group of Christians and there are
several writings that we have from those
early Christians in the Apocrypha where
it talks about Jesus going down to the
spirit world for example and teaching
there and we have information about him
giving what looks like information about
a temple ceremony and about things that
would be done in a Christian temple but
this information is lost to us all at
least canonically now you can go out and
you can read different writings from
these apocryphal writings and probably
get an idea at least of what was taught
during that time the problem is it's
not Scripture and so as we're told in
the Doctrine and Covenants when Joseph
Smith went to ask the Lord about hey
what about all of these other apocryphal
writings are they something that we
should be including into the Bible and
the Lord said no but there's a lot of
truths in them if you can discern them
by the spirit so you need the spirit
with you to be able to understand these
truths that may have been in there in
other words not all of its probably as
it is written and who knows the editing
processes and the groups that actually
grabbed onto them but what you might be
able to gain from them glean out of
these writings is a little bit of what
maybe was discussed some of the topics
that may have been discussed but
something to consider here as we move
toward the next chapter here in acts 2
is that this is a forty days teaching
now he's here about 40 days oftentimes
and it could be that sometimes it's an
actual number and it could be sometimes
it just means a long time but regardless
it is a ritualistic number or a
traditional number it means something
and as we move toward Pentecost which
happens about fifty days right at fifty
days from the time that Jesus is
resurrected this number forty kind of
glares right at us
without any of the teachings that are
given to us we're told specifically by
Luke that there are forty days that the
Lord spends with them well where else
did that happen where this might be
really important what might Luke as the
author here be referring to one thing to
consider that I would look at is the
forty days that Moses spent with the
Lord on Sinai if you go back and look in
the book of Exodus remember as we've
discussed often before about the higher
and the lower laws here this becomes a
very interesting as to how Luke is
launching off here after the first part
of his book here after the Gospel of
Luke it's talking about this higher law
being reinstituted and restored about
the kingdom of God being restored on
earth remember when Moses went up to
Sinai he came back down at first with
the fullness of the gospel with the
fullness of the priesthood with a milk
acidic law and Aaron and everyone
else they had made the golden calf they
were partying and Moses threw down the
tablets and broke them he broke what was
originally given to them which was the
fullness of the law the higher law and
then he goes back up and he spends 40
days at this time fasting with the Lord
and then he comes back down with the
lower law the ironic law the law of
Moses what became the law of Moses the
Torah
well this is what Pentecost celebrates
so going back to the time of Passover
when Jesus would died and was
resurrected he was the firstfruits so to
speak that's the counting of the Omer
the barley on the net the day after
Passover they had the counting of the
Omer the barley and they take that and
there's that that's the firstfruits and
then they have the firstfruits for fifty
days and at the end of fifty days that
is when they have the festival of weeks
or in Greek Pentecost that means fifty
and that's when they have the harvest of
the wheat and the thing that they
celebrate they're at that time apart
from the harvest is the giving of the
law from Moses the giving of the Torah
to the Israelites in the wilderness when
they had escaped Egypt
so the Passover was escaping Egypt right
with the blood on the doorposts and the
sacrificial lamb the Paschal Lamb and
then fifty days later is the celebration
of the wheat harvest with the festival
that they call shavoo or festival of
weeks and the reason it's called the
festival of weeks is because it is a
jubilee of days after Passover and what
that means is a Jubilee is seven
Sabbath's so it would be seven times
seven would be 49 days and then after
that would be the fiftieth day and
that's where they would celebrate the
giving of the law the giving of the
Torah to the ancient Israelites from
Sinai so interesting that we have this
and just as Moses was up on Sinai with
the Lord for forty days here we have the
resurrected Jesus Christ were the
Apostles for forty days leading right up
to the Pentecost where the law is given
where that is celebrated but what's the
difference this time the difference is
as we get this theme in acts one chapter
one is that the kingdom of God is being
restored and so it is like
a restoration of that higher law a
restoration of the Melchizedek law it's
almost as if Moses is going back up
Sinai for a third time and coming back
down again this time with the original
tablets with the fullness of the gospel
and the Melchizedek priesthood and that's
what is being brought out here at the
time of Pentecost with the Apostles so
Luke establishes right away here the
higher and the lower law and the
reference that I see here anyway is
going right back to that law given at
Sinai where the higher law was lost the
lower law was given and now that higher
law is being restored and then following
up here in Chapter 1 we get an
understanding that the Apostles are all
together there with the women these are
references of different women that Luke
has referred to previously in his gospel
the mother of Jesus is there with
them in an upper room in prayer and
supplication and they get to a point
where they need to ordain a new apostle
they need someone to replace Judas and
so coming down here at verse 22 we get
beginning from the baptism of John onto
that same day that he was taken up from
us must one be ordained to be a witness
with us of his resurrection so we know
that the calling of the twelve was by
ordination from Jesus and so they need
to do the same thing here so there show
Luke is showing us look again just like
John chapter 21 just as things have
changed they still stay the same there
is an order to follow here and they need
to ordain a new apostle and they have
two men here that they are looking at
Barsabbas Justus and Matthias
and it says here in verse 24 that they
prayed and said thou Lord which knowest
the hearts of all men shew whither of
these two thou hast chosen so I think
the point here in bringing this out that
Luke is bringing out here is that this
is still even though they're conducting
things they are turning to the Lord here
in prayer to help them decide who the
Apostle should be and finishing off in
verse 26 it says and they gave forth
their lots and the lot fell upon
Matthias and he was numbered with the
eleven apostles now anciently they used
to cast lots they could do it different
ways they'd have long sticks or short
stick and people would pull the sticks
and if you pulled the short one then the
lot fell to you but it's also a way of
saying a folk probably so it's more than
likely it could have been that they
actually cast as Lots it sounds like
that's what they did in the Book of
Mormon with Nephi and his brethren that
could have just been a way of doing it a
customary way of making a decision and
it may be that they trusted in the Lord
to be able to make that decision come
out right but I would guess here that
what they're saying is that there was
actually a vote that was taken and they
prayed for inspiration on this and then
took a vote and decided that Matthias
was the one that should replace Judas
and so then in Chapter two
Luke brings us right into Pentecost
again Pentecost is a festival it's one
of the three major festivals that the
Jews had each year where you have a lot
of pilgrims from all over the Diaspora
the spreading of the Jews that would
have would have come into Jerusalem you
had first Passover which had happened
fifty days previously now you have
Pentecost or shove out or the festival
of weeks and then later in the fall
you're going to have the festival of
Tabernacles or booths or Sukkot all of
these have some type of an association
with harvest as well but here Luke
continues with this theme of the new law
being brought in with the Holy Ghost and
so in verse one it says and when the day
of Pentecost was fully come now consider
this if it was actually forty days that
Jesus spent with them who knows when
that exactly that would have started I
mean he came back and visited them on
the road to Emmaus he visited them in
the room
Thomas came back later to see him he
according to John went to Galilee and
met them on the shore of the Sea of
Galilee he calls Tiberius so who knows
exactly when this forty days would have
started but if it was actually forty
days that would have been leading right
up to the Pentecost here starting so we
might keep that in mind he'd they've
spent all this time with a resurrected
Jesus Christ and they were all with one
Accord in one place this is the Apostles
and suddenly there came a sound from
heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and
it filled all the house where they were
sitting
interestingly in Hebrew the word for
spirit and the word for wind is the same
thing so the wind is oftentimes
associated with the Holy Ghost with the
Spirit of God and there appeared unto
them cloven tongues like as of fire and
it sat upon each of them so what is a
saying here it's talking about the gift
of tongues and so the spirit was poured
out upon them they were able to speak in
different languages and they began to
preach in different languages this would
also be important I think in
understanding the fullness of the gospel
the Holy Ghost going along with that
with a higher law and the Gentiles in
other words numerous different nations
numerous different tongues that would be
spoken and this would all be brought
together with this higher law now the
time that this happened was that the
dedication of Kurland there were
accounts of people having the gift of
tongues at this time when a temple was
dedicated and verse 4 says and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and began
to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance and verse 5
and there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews devout men out of every nation
under heaven so again this is during the
festival at Pentecost and so they've
come in from all these different
countries and they speak numerous
different languages in verse 6 now when
this was noised abroad the multitude
came together and were confounded
because that every man heard them speak
in his own language
and they were all amazed and marveled
saying one to another behold or not all
these which speak Galileans I think
that's an interesting point how would
they know that is there an accent is
there a way that they dress that is
differently what is known about those
that might be considered Galileans and
what difference would that make to them
or what difference do they see the
audience see in them or hear from them
or perceive from them that would be
different from those that might be in
Jerusalem say for example or from
anywhere else it's something to consider
there's something unique about them that
makes them Galileans or so it seems
and so the visitors here are all
confounded they're there wondering what
is going on here and Peter stands up why
Peter because Peter is the head of the
church he holds the keys and he says II
men of Judea and all ye that dwell at
Jerusalem sore all of you that are come
in from everywhere
Bevis known unto you and hearken to my
words for these are not drunken as he
suppose seeing it is but the third hour
of the day so this is 9 a.m. but this is
that which was spoken by the Prophet
Joel and it came 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 of course this is
what happened with Lehi and Nephi as
they left and were given some type of a
restoration of the higher law or a
holding on of the higher law and on my
servants and on my handmaidens I will
pour out in those days of my spirit and
they shall prophesy this is also what
Moroni quoted from the book of Joel here
to Joseph Smith when he visited him
before he had shown him the golden
plates and then he brings something up
that's really important here again this
is right out the gate in the book of
Acts he says here in verse 21 and it
shall come to pass
that whosoever shall call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved
well that phrase in and of itself is
something that all of the Jews would
have recognized and it's saying when he
said it when we say Lord here
what he means by that and what is
understood by that is Jehovah so they
believed as well that whosoever shall
call on the name of Jehovah shall be
saved
of course that's what the disciples and
the followers of Christ were
yelling when they put the palms down at
the on Palm Sunday in his procession
Oceania Oceania Hashanah right that's
basically lord save us they're basically
saying right there
your Jehovah please save us and here
then he says in verse 22 to clarify this
to those that are listening Amen of
Israel hear these words Jesus of
Nazareth a man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs so
this is something that people would have
known about even if they didn't
experience the firsthand this is Jesus
had just died seven weeks before which
God did by him in the midst of you as ye
yourselves also know they know about him
maybe were part of a group that may have
seen some of the miracles that one of
the other festivals him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God ye have taken and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain
so he goes first by saying you'll be
saved by calling on the name of the Lord
he then starts to reference Jesus who
has been crucified and slain whom God
hath raised up like the brazen serpent
having loosed the pains of death because
it was not possible that he should be
Holden of it and then he makes a
reference to a prophecy from King David
remember King David would have been in a
sense a prophet he would have held the
Melchizedek Priesthood more than likely
he would have been
a representative of Jehovah during the
Feast of Tabernacles and would have gone
into the Holy of Holies perhaps and
come out of the Holy of Holies born as
the Son of God as a representation of
Jehovah coming to the earth and bearing
the sins of the world and he talks about
how David which is somewhat recorded in
the psalms says how great it is that he
is not going to be left in Hell or any
of us will be left in hell or in a
spirit prison because we'll be freed of
that because of Christ so that's the
Messiah Christ is the same as Messiah
the Jews believe in a messiah but what
they don't believe in is that that
Messiah is the son of God that that
Messiah is Jesus or excuse me that that
Messiah is Jehovah and so he brings this
up about David and rejoicing that he nor
anyone will be held back in a spirit
prison because of our choices and
without the mercy of the atonement and
then he says this and this is very
specific and it goes along with what
John said toward the end of his gospel
he says in verse 36 therefore let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus whom ye
have crucified both Lord and Christ so
he is bringing those things again
together just like John did with Christ
and the son of God Luke is saying here
he's not just this Messiah that you have
in your mind
this political Savior coming along
that's not just who Jesus was
I am clarifying this and making this
very strong as P this is the first thing
that Luke has Peter teaching in his
first sermon after Jesus is resurrected
and it is that God made Jesus both Lord
and Christ in other words he's both
Jehovah
the Messiah he is God so this is crucial
in understanding this idea this concept
of Jehovah being born into the world
it's what gets lost prior to this time
over and over again but the audience
here that Peter has he speaks with such
power and with the Holy Ghost the
audience says the following to him what
shall we do and Peter said unto them
repent and be baptized it's the first
thing every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ so you're gonna call on the
name as he said before the name of God
the name of the Lord
well that Lord is Jesus Christ for the
remission of sins and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost which is the
higher law the Melchizedek law and it says
in verse 41 then they that gladly
received his word were baptized and the
same day there were added unto them
about 3,000 souls so here they are in
the middle of this huge Jewish festival
with people from all over the place and
they see this outpouring of the spirit
and they see Peter speaking with power
and authority and the Apostle speaking
with a gift of tongues and they are
convinced and they are baptized and they
become Jewish Christians which is what
happened in the early part of the church
there were almost all Jews it's
interesting to me that when we have for
example the famous section for a
missionary section of Doctrine and
Covenants where we're told that you know
put in your sickle and reap for the
field is white and ready to harvest
here it is Pentecost which is when the
field is white when they say the field
is white and it's ready to harvest
they're talking about wheat yes so the
field kind of turns whitish when that
when it's ready to harvest and that's
what Pentecost was about so that's kind
of an interesting parallelism here or
example of here Peter is starting off
with the church and converting all these
souls right when the field was white and
ready to harvest
and then one last point I want to make
here in this episode is on verse 46 it
says that and they continuing daily with
one Accord in the temple and breaking
bread from house to house did eat their
meat with gladness and singleness of
heart praising God and having favor with
all the people and the Lord added to the
church daily such as should be saved so
the idea that missionary work is going
on now and many people are being
converted and becoming followers of
Christ followers of the Son of God but
it says they continued daily with one
Accord in the temple and this is an
important thing that's been lost with
most of Christianity today the temple
did not go away and it was not a
something that was turned away from when
Jesus was resurrected the common idea
through Orthodox Christianity not
Orthodox but mainstream credo
Christianity about the temple is that
the temple was able to be taken away
because Jesus's resurrected body was the
new temple and it represented the temple
and then the body of Christ was the
church the people and that's kind of the
new temple that came about but it's just
like with the Jews a few decades later
here the temple is destroyed in 70 AD by
the Romans and just like the Jews losing
their teachings in the temple and their
rituals and their sacrifices the
Christians eventually lose it as well a
lot of what those forty Day teachings
were about the temple and about the
higher law and the Montessori priesthood
ordinances and were shown right here
that the Apostles and the disciples went
daily to the temple even after Jesus had
resurrected it was a part of what they
believed in and they spent their time
there and one or some of them were
actually killed there
so the temple was from the get-go even
after Christ was resurrected a central
part of Christian practice and thought
I'll talk to you next time
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