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Throughout the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we are given accounts of Jesus traveling to Jerusalem. First, we read about Jesus going to Jerusalem when He was a baby and then again when He was 12 years old. He traveled there with His mother, Mary, and Joseph, and usually a large group of family members and friends. The journey was a long walk and took up to a week to get their comfortably.
Later in the Gospel accounts we are told that as an adult, Jesus made that same trip from the Galilee to Jerusalem many times. In fact we have reason to imagine He made this journey more than once each year, perhaps every year of His life. Most of the time Jesus traveled with His family and later with His disciples. Once it seems He may have even gone by Himself. Again, it was a long walk there and back and the weather did not always cooperate. Nonetheless it appears Jesus, like most Jewish men, was committed to each pilgrimage.
Why? Why take perhaps 9 weeks out of each year and make the trip to Jerusalem, spend a week there, then make the week-long trip back to your home? Because God said …
Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
From the time of Moses until today, those who follow the Law of Moses are commanded, if at all possible, to appear before the Lord three times each year at the place God shall choose. From the days of King David until the crucifixion of Jesus, that place was unquestionably Jerusalem.
This is why Jesus and His family, and later His disciples kept going there. This is why Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover the year He was crucified. This is why so many Jews and converts to Judaism from all over the known world were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost that same year.
Without respect as to what else is going on in the world at any given moment, God’s eyes and His heart are always on Jerusalem. God’s plan for mankind is tied to what happens in Israel and even more specifically, in Jerusalem.
Between
700 and 900 years before Jesus was born, the word of the Lord came to a prophet
named Joel. To give us some perspective as to
what was happening on the world stage during that time:
·
In
about 910BC King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, lost control of the nation and it
divided between the 10 Northern Tribes and the 2 Tribes of Judah and Benjamin in
the South.
·
In
900BC the city of La Venta replaced the city of San Lorenzo as the capital city
of the Olmecs along the Gulf of Mexico. It was a part of the growing
Mesoamerican culture of its day.
·
In
870BC the Assyrian King dedicated a new palace in the city of Nimrud, (20 miles
south of Mosel in Iraq), and boasted he accounted for 69,584 guests who attended
the palace-warming party.
·
In
853BC, 1000 Arab warriors riding on camels did battle at Qarqar in western
Syria. History records King Ahab of Israel sent 2000 chariots and 10,000
soldiers to that battle. The combined forces marked the largest number of
people ever assembled for war up until that time. (Also of note: This was the
first known reference in recorded history to delineate Arabs as a distinct people
group.) At the point when Arabs were written into history, this 1000-member
camel calvary were allies with the Jews against their enemies.
·
By
800BC the Egyptians were using sundials.
·
776BC
is the traditional date for the first athletic contest at Olympia.
·
753BC
is the date established for the founding of Rome.
·
710BC
the first key was fitted into a lock at the palace of Sargon II in Assyria.
·
700BC
The Greeks added vowels to their alphabet and the Egyptians created an
abbreviated form of hieroglyphs for everyday use. (in the script “demotic” –
meaning – “for the people”)
·
689BC
The Assyrian King Sennacherib destroyed the city of Babylon with such
brutality.
·
667BC
Byzantium, (the future Constantinople), now the city of Istanbul, where 30 of
us will be in 12 days, was founded. It was originally a Greek city-state.
(Source:http://www.historyworld.net)
At any rate, while all this was going on under heaven’s watch, God had His eyes firmly fixed on Israel. God’s eternal plan was unfolding on schedule and His Word came to the prophet Joel about a coming day, hundreds of years in Joel’s future, which we now know as the day of Pentecost. Joel perfectly recorded the prophecy and foretold how God would one day pour His Spirit out upon all flesh.
Fast forward 700 to 900 years after the time of Joel to the time of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry. Jesus was 33 ½ years old. It was the spring of the year and time for the Feast of Passover. As was His custom, Jesus went up to Jerusalem to observe the feast. This year would be different than any year before. It had been 1500 years since Moses wrote Deuteronomy 16:16 commanding all men to attend this celebration. It had always been a dress rehearsal only this year, Jesus was the Lamb, and His blood would forever deliver God’s children and set them free from the penalties of sin.
Jesus was crucified at Passover, raised on the third day, it was a Sunday. Then 50 days later, again on a Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost began.
Acts 2
1 ¶ When the Day of Pentecost
had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house
where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them
divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance.
5 ¶ And there were dwelling
in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
9 “Parthians and Medes and
Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 “Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews
and proselytes,
11 “Cretans and
Arabs — (they said) we hear them speaking in our own tongues the
wonderful works of God.”
12 So they were all amazed
and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?”
13 Others mocking said, “They
are full of new wine.”
14 ¶ But Peter, standing up
with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who
dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.
15 “For these are not drunk,
as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
16 “But this is what was
spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass
in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and
on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall
prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in
heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned
into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and
awesome day of the LORD.
21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’”
Both the prophecy of Joel and the account of Luke confirms that God poured His Spirit out on His sons and daughters for one eternal purpose … the salvation of people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. And, according to Revelation 14, you will see people in heaven from all over the world: ever custom, culture, creed, and condition of life, who have been saved by the blood of the Lamb because of the precious Holy Spirit who was given to us on the Day of Pentecost so that we might have the ability to be a witness to all nations.
When Jesus breathed on His disciples and gave them power in His name and sent out on His behalf, as recorded in Luke 10, they returned all excited about what they had experienced. Those disciples told Jesus how the devils were subject to them in His name. He confirmed their power was real, but He also informed them as to why they had been given such power. He told them not to rejoice in the power alone but that they should rejoice in the fact that their names had been written in the Lamb’s book of life.
It is now and always has been about souls. And it always will be until the coming of the Lord. Allow me to quote the prophet Joel and the Apostle Peter by giving you the best news ever heard by anyone, anywhere, at any time …
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved!”
Paul quoted this same prophecy in Romans 10:13. Then the Apostle followed up with a sobering truth:
Romans 10 NLT
13 For “Everyone who calls on
the name of the LORD will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
So much is going on all over the world today. However, God still has His eyes firmly fixed on His plan to save every person we tell about Jesus. Let’s not forget that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of salvation to the Jew first and also to every Gentile.
Without respect as to what custom, culture, creed, or condition of life you or anyone else experiences … every person needs Jesus!
We have but one duty to the God who loves us and gave His only begotten Son to save us from eternal damnation. We have been commissioned to tell others about Jesus. Without prejudice, pride, or presumption. Every person needs Jesus.
The
message of Pentecost is a message of salvation. Go from here and tell someone
the Good News this week. How could you not?
