Newsletter

Fruits of Spiritual Harvest-Wheat

Posted on by PMTkent

Fruits of Spiritual Harvest-Wheat

 

When the Israelites were entering the Promised Land, God told them it would be filled with seven distinct fruits as signs of His Abundance and Presence in the country. The first of these named fruits was wheat, which not only proved to be an essential source of food for its ability to be stored long-term, but was a symbol of those whose fruits would be everlasting.

Wheat was first mentioned in Genesis 30:14, when Patriarch Jacob and his growing family were participating in the wheat harvest, which was one of the most economically important to Israel. The wheat harvest was also the framework for the Feast of Weeks, known today as Pentecost, when the early Church first received the Holy Spirit.

Jesus referenced the wheat harvest in the parable of the tares, describing the Kingdom of Heaven as a field planted with good seeds, which had been corrupted by weeds sown by the enemy. Though the servants advocated removing the weeds, the master explained that doing so would root up the good wheat as well. Instead, the master suggested that they wait till harvest time, then the reapers would be able to distinguish between the weeds and wheat, based on their fruiting bodies, and then separate them to be burned or put into the master’s storehouse (ref. Matthew 12:24-30).

Lolium temulentum, typically known as darnel, poison darnel, darnel ryegrass or cockle is suspected of being the weeds referred to in this parable. This is due to the fact that up until the plant matures and begins to produce fruit, it is difficult to distinguish between wheat. More heinously, this weed’s name “temelentus” means “drunk” in Latin to describe the drunken nausea commonly associated with eating the grain, after it has been infected by a common fungus, which can lead to death if consumed.

Jesus wanted to stress that there would be many followers that had the appearance of being Christians, but it was by their “fruits“ that each would be differentiated. There was also a stark contrast between how each would ultimately be dealt with, the toxic tares and the life-giving grain would be harvested and protected in the barn.

Jesus also uses the wheat cultivation as a way to explain the process of producing fruit, saying that “unless a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit“. Christ further clarifies that if a man loves his life, he will lose it; but those who forgo this world to serve and follow Christ, will experience eternal life, beside Christ, and will be honored by the Father (ref. John 12:24-26).

This was a difficult concept to accept for people who expected Christ to bring a physical kingdom. They anticipated that He would be ruling and reigning from an earthly throne, but He was very direct about the fact that His Body and their physical expectations must die away in order to produce spiritual fruits.

Wheat was an essential foodstuff for the ancient world and Christ used its husbandry to explain how His Followers would be distinct, based on their fruits, compared to those who simply claimed His Name. Wheat was further used to explain that we must forgo material things to produce spiritual crops. The wheat harvest was also the moment when the Holy Spirit first filled the early Church.

God promised Israel a land blessed with a generous wheat harvest. He promised His Church would be blessed with the Holy Spirit, that, if they followed and worshiped Him, they would produce spiritual fruits, and that they would be a part of the elect who would be separated from the rest of the world to be taken to Heaven. As Pentecost approaches, we pray that you are filled with the Holy Spirit, and producing spiritual fruits in anticipation for eternity, in His Spiritual Kingdom.

 

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

 

You Will Know them by their Fruits

Posted on by PMTkent

You Will Know them by their Fruits

 

When God brought Israel into the Promised Land, He reassured them that this country would not only be overflowing with milk and honey, but a rich bountiful harvest of the best produce. These fruits had special symbolism in the land of Israel and were used as a way to explain important principles about the spiritual kingdom Christ had prepared for His Disciples and the spiritual fruit He expected of them.

The fruits of the Promised Land, typically referred to as the Seven Species, were some of the earliest promises God made to the Israelites, as He brought them “into a good land – a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and date honey” (Deuteronomy 8:7-8).

Jewish Oral tradition believed these were the only acceptable first fruits that could be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem. Any fruits from foreign cultivation were not of the lands of Israel and thus not blessings from God and not worthy of sacrifice.

Christ recognized that false teachers would sow discord and confusion amongst the people and He warned His Followers to pay attention to the ultimate results of people’s actions. Though they prophesied in Christ’s name, cast out demons, and did many wonderful works, Christ would deny them and toss them aside because their work and their fruits were not of God.

It was only those who did God’s Heavenly Will who would enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, and only the good fruits of the Spirits that would enter the storehouse. Christ illustrated that we would recognize someone sent of Him by their fruits. Just as men would not gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, it is only from good trees that we collect good fruits and that every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (ref. Matthew 7).

Even before Christ’s Baptism, John recognized the Pharisees and Sadducees as a generation of vipers that had failed to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance” because they thought to themselves that “[having] Abraham as [their] father” was enough to spare them from the “axe ready at the root of the trees…that do not produce good fruit, [which} would be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:7-10).

Over the next several weeks we will explore the Seven Species (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranate, olives, and dates) and what they meant to the ancient Israelites, how their meanings developed in the time of the early Christians and what they mean to those of us who live in the current age.

 

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

 

Christ: The First Fruit of the Awakening

Posted on by PMTkent

Christ: The First Fruit of the Awakening

 

Our previous article explored how Nisan 17 served as the dividing marker between the Old Ways and the New Blessings God had in store for His People. This starting point for counting towards the Feast of Weeks, also known as Pentecost, was the day of Christ’s Resurrection, which declared that He was the Firstfruits of those who slept and would experience the Spiritual Awakening.

The first mention of the Feast of Firstfruits may have been in Genesis 4, when Cain and Abel offered their gifts to God. Cain brought “an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground” compared to the “the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions” that Abel offered. “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,” while Cain’s offering was disregarded, possibly because Cain did not offer the Firstfruits and thus the best of his harvest, while Abel did. This set a precedent for future worshipers and their offerings.

The establishment of Firstfruits as one of the Feasts of the Lord, was first mentioned in Leviticus 23, explaining that it would fall on the Sunday following Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Matthew (28:1), Mark (16:9), Luke (24:1), and John (20:19) all reinforce the fact that Christ was resurrected on this “first day of the week” after His Crucifixion on Passover.

The Feast of Firstfruits occurred during the ripening of the barley harvest, which was appropriate, since Israel was often closely associated with barley, which stood as a kind of national grain. When Judge Gideon was fearful of attacking a massive army with a dwindled 300 man force, God instructed Gideon to sneak to the nearby enemy camp and listen to the dream a soldier was recalling to another about a round loaf of barley bread destroying the camp. The fellow soldier understood the barley bread as a symbol for Israel, which was about to defeat them in battle. The famous feeding of the five thousand, which was made up of a population of Jews preparing for Christ’s second ministry Passover, was fed with five small barley loaves and two fish. This symbolism emphasized the fact that Christ first came to save and reap the House of Israel, before the rest of the world, as we will later see in the wheat harvest beginning at Pentecost.

When Christ rose on the Day of Firstfruits, people would have been “[bringing] a sheaf of the firstfruits of [their] harvest to the priest” in the Temple of Jerusalem. The Temple priests would have been taking these offerings and “[waving] them before the Lord,…on their behalf” as a demonstration that the worshiper had fulfilled the statute and recognized God as the source of the coming harvest.

Firstfruits were meant to remind the Israelites that the Lord heard their ancestors’ voices in their affliction and oppression, and brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand, great terror and signs and wonders. He then brought them to “a land flowing with milk and honey”, so they were obligated to bring the firstfruits of the land which God had given them (ref. Deuteronomy 26:5-10).

The physical Promised Land that Israel inherited, was a gift from God that required physical offerings as thanks for a physical harvest. In like manner, the spiritual kingdom that Christ had won for His People, when he conquered Death, would require spiritual offerings as thanks for a spiritual harvest. Just as the Israelites were collecting the new produce from the grains they had sown into the ground, “Christ was now risen from the dead, and [had] become the firstfruits of [those] that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

Christ’s Resurrection, which coincided with Firstfruits, should remind Christians of the affliction and oppression we had previous experienced under the slavery of sin, and how, through Jesus’s signs, wonders, and death on the cross, He bought our salvation and offers us the chance to be part of His Spiritual Kingdom, overflowing with blessings.

The Feast of Firstfruits was the initiation of the new harvest that was about to begin and served as a reminder to the Children of Israel of how their God delivered them and brought them into a prosperous country. Christ’s Resurrection was the inauguration of the Spiritual Harvest of those who slept and would be awakened, transformed. Just as the Israelites delighted in the fruits they were about to enjoy, we received a greater reward in the Firstfruits of the Spirit.

 

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

 

The Day Death was Defeated

Posted on by PMTkent

The Day Death was Defeated

 

The day Jesus rose from the Grave was a momentous occasion, that we still celebrate nearly two millennium later, but this special day had a long history of marking important Biblical events. This third day after Passover, Nisan 17, signified the day death was defeated, and was the beginning of a new chapter.

The first Nisan 17th, after God had established His Calendar, was the day that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. The exhausted Israelites began a three day journey immediately after their Passover Feast on Nisan 14, and had just reached the banks of the Red Sea. The Pharaoh of Egypt and his cavalry had been pursuing them, and now the Israelites were pinned against the water’s edge. Exodus 14 describes the miraculous moment when Moses outstretched his arm over the waters and they receded, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry land. Before the sun rose, Moses outstretched his hand again and the pursuing Egyptian military was consumed by the Red Sea. Slavery and Death by the Egyptian armies was replaced with Freedom and Hope on that day.

Forty years later, after the generation that had crossed the Red Sea had died wandering in the wilderness, Joshua lead the new generation across the Jordan River and camped in the plains of Jericho. They celebrated the Passover Feast (Nisan 14) and ate some of the produce from the previous harvest, as unleavened bread and roasted grain, the next day (Nisan 15). The following day (Nisan 16), was the last day that manna fell from Heaven, because they would begin to eat the fruits of the land from Nisan 17 onward (Joshua 5:2-12). The previous hard hearted generation and the old grain were replaced by a newly circumcised population and First Fruits of the Promised Land.

After Israel had become an established nation, and built the First Temple, it had been ruled by many evil and idolatrous kings who had defiled the Temple and turned the nation of Israel’s heart from God. God raised up righteous King Hezekiah to begin the cleansing of the Temple on the First Day of the First Month of Hezekiah’s first year of ruling. The work was completed on the sixteenth day and very early on the seventeenth day of the first month (Nisan 17) King Hezekiah gathered the rulers of Jerusalem and had a massive celebration commemorating the Cleansing of the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:1-28). King Hezekiah replaced the human and child sacrifices of the pagan worship the Israelites had fallen into, with Devotion to the Living God.

During the Babylonian Exile, a plot was instigated by Haman, one of the high officials of King Xerxes, who planned to exterminate the Jews in the empire. The edict enacting this systematic genocide was signed and decreed on the thirteenth day of the first month (Nisan 13). Instructed by her honorable uncle Mordecai, Queen Esther, a Jewess, requests that the Jews fast for three days. At the end of the third day’s (Nisan 16) fast, Esther hosted a private banquet for the King and the scheming official, Haman, inviting them to another banquet the following evening. During this feast, Haman’s plans for extermination of the Jews are uncovered, and Haman was killed in the manner he had planned for his rival Mordecai. This reversal, on Nisan 17, not only had Haman killed instead of Mordecai, but Haman’s wealth, authority, and title were given to Mordecai as well. Annihilation was replaced by Power and Glory.

When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they left 430 years of slavery and certain slaughter by the Egyptian chariots, and began the journey to form a nation after God’s own Heart. After Joshua traversed the Jordan River, to enter the Promised Land, there was no going back to Egypt, and no option to continue wandering in the Wilderness, amongst the previous generation’s bones, as the Manna had stopped falling from Heaven, and they would have to conquer the new land before them. After Israel had fallen into idolatry and human sacrifice, they had the opportunity to abandon the death cults that had been introduced into their lands and turn their love back to the God who established them. Even after they had been exiled, God’s redemption was seen when Haman’s conspiracy to massacre the Jews, led to his own death, and his rival Mordecai replacing him. Christ’s Crucifixion on Passover was the price of redemption, but it was His Resurrection three days later on Nisan 17 that marked the dividing line between what had been and the new chapter that had just begun.

God’s Timing is always perfect and the date of Christ’s Resurrection is a deliberate reference to the many previous prophetic instances of God giving His People the opportunity to leave behind their Demise and Destruction in exchange for Life and Prosperity God sought to redeem His People from their Slavery, their Hardheartedness, their Idolatry, and their Political and Economic Rivals, but all those challenges paled in comparison to Christ’s ultimate victory, for all of mankind, over Death.

 

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator

 

Prophetic Praise on Passover

Posted on by PMTkent

Prophetic Praise on Passover

 

Christ and His Disciples celebrated the Passover Feast the night before His Crucifixion, where Jesus used the prophetic imagery of the bread as His Body and the wine as His Blood to explain the sacrifice He was about to make. The closing of the Passover meal included another tremendously significant prophetic signal that enlightened the expectant Hebrews of Christ’s coming and was something Jesus and His Disciples also participated in during the Last Supper: the singing of Psalms.

The Book of Psalms was a collection of songs of praise, similar to the hymnal books found in many churches today. These songs were sung during weekly worship and God’s Festivals. Just as we have seasonal songs, some of these psalms were designated for specific holy days. Psalms 113-118, which were sung during Passover, were collectively referred to as the “Hallel“ (translated: “Praise“), the root of “Hallelujah“, which means “Praise the Lord“. These Songs of Praise were written during David’s kingship, but were later adopted in the Haggadah, which established a systematic way to observe the Passover feast in what we know today as a Seder.

The priests who served in the Temple, during the Passover, would have been singing these Psalms as they handed the blood filled silver basins to each other in a chain, with the last man tossing the sacrificial lamb’s blood onto the Mercy Seat. The sounds of their unified chanting would have filled Jerusalem during the Passover festivities creating a harmonic atmosphere for the Jewish men who had come from all over the known world to offer their ransom.

The Hallel song lyrics clearly showed that the Passover Feast was not restricted to Jewish participants, but that God’s Love was extended to all who feared God. In Psalm 116:9-11, all people, starting with “All you Israelites”, followed by “House of Aaron”, and closing with “You who Fear Him” are encouraged to “trust in the Lord-He is their Help and Shield“.

All you Israelites, trust in the Lord-
He is their Help and Shield.
House of Aaron, trust in the Lord-
He is their Help and Shield.
You who fear Him, trust in the Lord-
He is their Help and Shield.

This encompassing of all mankind is not accidental, and is repeated in Psalm 118:2-4, when the Psalmist wrote “Let Israel Say”, trailed by “Let the House of Aaron say”, finishing with “Let those who fear the Lord say”: “His Love endures forever”.

Let Israel say:
“His love endures forever.”
Let the House of Aaron say:
“His love endures forever.”
Let those who fear the Lord say:
“His love endures forever.”

After the Passover meal, Christ and His Disciples would have sung the closing half of the Hallel, Psalms 116-118.

Psalm 116 especially has direct references to Christ’s last few hours before His Crucifixion. The stanza “Everyone is a liar” (v. 11) alluded to not only Judas who betrayed Him, but also Peter who denied Him. “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (v. 13) must have chimed through Jesus’ thoughts as He prayed “let this cup pass from Me“, but He satisfied the following line that “I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,” (v.14) when He faced Crucifixion, recognizing that “Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his faithful servants” (v.15).

Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm and the shortest chapter in the Bible, exclaiming

“Praise the Lord, all you nations,
extol Him, all you Peoples”,
“For great is His Love toward us,
and the Faithfulness of the Lord Endures forever”.

It concludes with “Praise the Lord”, reminding us that His immeasurable Love and Faithfulness should be recognized and celebrated by Everyone.

Psalm 118, the closing psalm, had been alluded to throughout Christ’s ministry. Jesus explained that He was “the Lord’s right hand, [which] has done mighty things!” (v. 15), “the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous may enter” (v. 20), and “the stone the builders rejected, [which had] become the cornerstone” (v. 22).

As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey, the crowds chanted “Hosanna! Blessed is the One coming in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest [heavens]!” (ref. Matthew 21:9; Mark 11:9-10; Luke 19:38; John 12:13). This direct reference to Psalm 118:25-26 meant that the adoring crowds understood that this Psalm was alluding to Christ as they chanted while He entered the city.

While the Passover Feast had transformed since the night of the 10th Plague, when the First Born was slaughtered, Jesus was able to take the new symbols, such as the wine drunk, to allude to His Blood, and the Psalms sung, to demonstrate the sacrifice He was about to give. In whatever capacity you celebrate and remember Our Savior’s Sacrifice this week, we pray that you give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His Mercy endureth for ever.

 

Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator