Memorial Day and Pentecost*

There is a connection between Memorial Day and the Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot), which we are celebrating now. Memorial Day remembers those who have paid the ultimate price, their lives, not for themselves but for others. Many of our servicemen and women have done this. On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Christ in the Upper Room in Jerusalem (see Acts 2). As Jesus spoke to His disciples shortly before His suffering and death, He told them of their connection to Him, and to His Father, as well as His promise to send the Holy Spirit to them. The basis of that connection is love: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love...This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (Jn. 15:9-12, 17). This is the kind of love which Jesus was describing: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." (v. 13-15). The sacrifice of His life was not being made for Himself, but for others whom Jesus calls His friends. This is the kind of sacrifice that we honor and remember on Memorial Day. It is the same kind of love that Jesus commands us to have for each other. This is what will make us one with Him and His Father, and, at the same time, will make us enemies to the world, in their eyes: "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you....because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hateth you...But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me...He that hateth me hateth my Father also." (v. 18-23). However, because of this love sealed by Jesus' sacrifice, we can bear miraculous spiritual fruit, unlike any that the world offers: "...I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (v. 16). However, for those who have seen the works of Jesus that are unlike the works of any other man, yet hate Him and His Father, they remain in their sins because they hated Him "without cause". Jesus pointed out that there was a prophecy in the law that said this would happen (Jn. 15:24-25, see Ps. 35:19 and 69:4). Directly connected to the words Jesus spoke above regarding His own death for others, He then said: "But when the Comfortor is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." (v. 26). From this sacrifice of His life, Jesus will send the Holy Spirit from His Father. We have the connection between the sacrifice that we recognize on Memorial Day, and the coming of the Comforter sent by the Father on Pentecost. The apostle Paul wrote about the law of the Spirit: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death...That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Rom. 8:1-4). This is why the Father sent His own Son in the flesh, thereby condemning sin in the flesh, because The Father knew of our weakness in the flesh...They that are in the flesh cannot please God (v. 3, 8). But Christ came so that we may have the Spirit, and walk in the Spirit: "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." (v. 10-11). If you have never received the Holy Spirit, you need Him in your life. Paul also wrote of the believers in Christ as epistles written by the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 3:3). We bring forgiveness in the person of Christ to those who are forgiven. We also, Paul wrote, have a savor (fragrance) in the earth (2 Cor. 2:9-17). One savor is the savor of the triumph and knowledge of Christ, which we make manifest in every place that we go. Another kind of savor that we carry is the sweet smelling savor of Christ, which according to its meaning, is the sweet odor of His sacrifice. This savor is to both those who are living (in salvation), and to those who are dying in sin. We bring the fragrance of "life unto life", and to the other, we are the fragrance of "death unto death". What we speak, we speak the Word of God in Christ, and not of ourselves. In Mt. 10:19-20, Jesus instructed His disciples not to give thought to what they were to say, especially in the presence of their persecutors, but the Spirit of God that is in them would speak what they were to say. The Holy Spirit makes a difference in the life of a believer in every way and circumstance. Paul wrote in Ephesians: "That he (the Father) would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and the know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God...according to the power (of His Spirit) that worketh in us." (Eph. 3:16-20). Memorial Day is celebrated with BBQ's and fun, but it is the day appointed for remembering those who gave their lives for us, the greatest of these being Jesus Christ. This year, since Memorial Day and Pentecost or Shavuot, are occurring at the same time, we see the connection between the sacrifice made by Christ, and Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus from heaven. We can pray together: "Lord Jesus, I thank You for dying on my behalf, for my salvation from sin and death. On this day, I remember Your sacrifice for me, as well as those others who gave their lives on my behalf. As You sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, fill me also with the Spirit of God, my Comforter, the Spirit of truth, to change me, guide me, and speak through me. I ask this, with thanks, in Your name. AMEN." *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 5/28/23 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, theshroudofturin.org, and END TIME SCHOOL, also on Facebook. You can also get a free ebook titled "The Shroud of Turin- A Perfect Summary" at www.TheShroudofTurin.org/freebook.