Come Follow Me LDS- Acts 1-5 Part 1

'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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