Okay, good, here. What verses in the OT or Torah describe this Day of First Fruits and are there any verses that make such a specific prediction about a new order of mankind who will be led by the Messiah? THAT is what I'm after.
It was at Pentecost that God sent a new kind of Torah that God writes on people’s hearts...that changes them from the inside out.
Good, this is more specific. Is this at Mt Sinai? Do you see what I am after? Can you tell me what verses say anything about a Messiah at this point?
What I am asking for is very specific. I want to know what prophecies you feel Jesus fulfilled. I want books, chapters, and verses, not vague story-telling.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have ever lasting life.
You’re going to have to start as a child would start, ask God yourself, and start from there.
A larger discussion:
John chapter 1 says that God was the word. It says That this “word” was made flesh and dwelt among us. A Simple logical statement: If God was the word, and Jesus was that flesh the Gospel of John was writing about, then Jesus was God. Even a child of about 6 to 8 can understand that reasoning. Now can you believe it, do you have ears to hear it?...those are questions far above my station and between you and God to answer.
Christ said to the Devil during the time of his temptation: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. God IS the word,Jesus IS the Word made flesh, and we live by their words.
The Torah was God’s word written on stone tablets, Moses likened the transgression of the law as death, so the Hebrews were to obey the law...”Why would ye die?” Moses entreated his people.
Jeremiah 30 and 31 speak of a future time for Israel. Chapter 31:31-34 is more pertinent for this conversation because it speaks of God writing his laws directly into people, redirecting their internal operating systems as it were...
Note also verse 34 especially. It was at Pentecost that we saw the beginning fulfillment of this prophecy. Later on Peter had to learn the hard way that even non Jews were invited to Jesus and could take part in this Holy Spirit Baptism...this inculcation of “GOD IS THE WORD” directly into their beings.
31“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband tod them,e ”
declares the Lord.
33“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Here is the OT depiction of the Celebration of the first fruits. Notice in addition to the sheafs of fruits a lamb was also offered. This was well known as prophetic though very few even in Jesus’ time knew the whole import of the feast until after the Resurrection. God offered his own Son as that first fruits lamb and then raised him up after 3 days and 3 nights on the day of “First Fruits”. Jesus was the first fruits of an order of men that would be filled with the spirit of God and someday be resurrected, to be seated with Christ, heirs of his salvation.
Leviticus 23:10-14
10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah[a] of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.[b] 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Very simple really, though it all depends on your internal filter...whether or not you can accept the premises I’ve offered you. Do refer also back to Jeremiah 31:31 to 34 as you read this passage. DO YOU NOW GET WHAT I AM SAYING? In Adam we die...In Christ we are made alive! A new order of man, a new royal priesthood after the order of Melchizedek! Sons and Daughters of God!(would you like to be one...for real? )
Christ said on one occaision “I am the Resurrection and the life,; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”…
(Either a crazy man or God can say something like this...you choose which to believe, I’ll not be held responsible for your own choices.)
It was at that point Jesus speaks with the Father...and then raises Lazarus from the grave.
http://christianity.about.com/od/biblefactsandlists/a/Prophecies-Jesus.htm
44 Prophecies of the Messiah fulfilled in Jesus Christ