Him that overcometh will I make a pillar
in the Temple of My God.
Revelation 3:12
Birth of the Church
T
he beginning (or birth) of the Church is amazing!
It was on the day of Pentecost, a fiftieth day (Leviticus 23:15), that is after seven Sabbaths complete, from the day of the offering of the first-fruits. It was the next day but one after the Passover (the sixteenth day of the month Abib). It was was the day that Christ arose.
This feast of Pentecost was kept in remembrance of the giving of the law upon mount Sinai (Jewish church was dated), which Dr. Lightfoot reckons to be just one thousand four hundred and forty-seven years before this. Fitly, therefore, is the Holy Ghost given at that feast, in fire and in tongues, for the promulgation of the new law, not as that to one nation, but to every creature.
This feast of Pentecost happened on the first day of the week (Sunday), the believer’s Sabbath, the day which the Lord hath made, to be a standing memorial in his church of those two great blessings:
- The resurrection of Christ,
- The pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
This encourages us to observe it in the honour and title of the Lord’s day (Isaiah 58:13-14). Moreover we should sanctify it by ascribing God praise, worship and honour, particularly for those two great blessings and importantly for the birth of the Church (Revelation 1:10).
Not only the beginning but the zenith of the church is glorious when Christ presents it in its perfection.