NOTES

The Day of the Resurrection

Friday Crucifixion

As we have shown in the event "The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus", the weight of evidence from reading the gospels literally supports a Friday crucifixion on the day before the Sabbath which began at sunset on Friday and continued until sunset on Saturday:

Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away... Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. (John 19:31,42)

The women returned home and rested on the Sabbath, Saturday:

Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment. (Luke 23:56)

Sunday Resurrection

The evidence is equally strong for a Sunday morning resurrection, on the first day of the Jewish week. Many Scriptures explicitly state that the resurrection was on the third day from Jesus' death:

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. (Matthew 16:21)

Some Scriptures use the phrase after three days:

Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ “Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. (Matthew 27:62-66)

This passage is interesting because the chief priests and Pharisees clearly state that their understanding of the words of Jesus, After three days I am to rise again, was that His body would rise on the third day because the grave only had to be made secure until the third day. It is generally understood by Bible scholars that the Jews treated part of a day as a whole day, so after three days can mean on the third day.

Luke 24:1-3 tells us that early on the first day of Weeks, the first day of the Jewish Feast of Weeks which was on the first day of the Jewish week, Sunday, the women went to the tomb and found it empty:

But on the first day of the week (weeks), at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Then later on the same day, a risen Jesus walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus and they told Him it was the third day since their Lord had been crucified:

And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus... it is the third day since these things happened. (Luke 24:13,21)

All this evidence points to a Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection.

Jesus rose before dawn on Sunday

John 20:1 tells us that Jesus had already risen from the dead on Sunday before Mary Magdalene found the tomb empty before dawn:

Now on the first day of the week [literally, "on the first of the sabbaths"] Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.

Dating the death and resurrection of Jesus

We have shown elsewhere that projecting forward seventy weeks or 490 years from the start of Daniel's Seventy Weeks in 458 BC in all the solar and lunisolar calendars of the Bible takes us to 33 AD. This tells us that the year of Christ’s death and resurrection was 33 AD. Remember that there is no year 0, so the year after 1 BC is 1 AD.

The instructions concerning the Passover in Exodus 12 specify that the Passover Lamb had to be killed towards the end of 14 Nisan in the Jewish Lunisolar Calendar in which the day ended at sunset. The Gospel accounts of the death of Jesus tell us that Jesus' body was removed from the Cross before the start of the Sabbath.

These two facts mean that the crucifixion had to be on 14 Nisan in the Jewish Lunisolar Calendar and also on a Friday, the day before the Sabbath. The only previous occasions where these two conditions were met around the time when Daniel's Seventy Weeks should have ended were 30 AD and 33 AD, and the subsequent occasion was in 40 AD.

33 AD is the one that fits because it is exactly 490 years from our starting point for Daniel's Seventy Weeks in 458 BC. Friday 14 Nisan in that year, the day when Jesus died on the Cross, was Friday 1 April 33 AD in our Gregorian Calendar.

4000 Years in the Chronology of Redemption

When the Passover was incorporated into the Mosaic Law that God gave to Israel, the Passover Lamb had to be set aside for four days before it was sacrificed. Through the Passover Lamb, God was speaking of the coming Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. In John 1:29, John the Baptist identified Jesus as this Lamb of God:

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

We have shown that the seven days of creation represent 7000 years in the course of the Chronology of Redemption, and we can now see that the four days when the Passover Lamb was set aside before it was sacrificed represent 4000 years in which Jesus was set aside from the Fall before He was sacrificed on the Cross in the place of mankind.

In the Chronology of Redemption, Jesus died exactly 4000 years to the day after the Fall of man. This is the last day of the four days of 1000 years each during which Jesus was set aside before being slain. At the end of this day, another Jubilee year will be added and the Chronology of Redemption will show 4000 completed years.

4000 years in the Chronology of Redemption were completed at the end of the Friday when Jesus was crucified. The Chronology of Redemption resumed its course on the Sunday when Jesus rose from the dead. The day in between, when Jesus was in the grave, was not reckoned in the Chronology of Redemption.

Matthew's gospel was written to the Jews to show that Jesus was the Messiah who had been presented to them, and to explain why the Messianic Kingdom had not been established. At the end of chapter 27 of his Gospel, Matthew records the days of the death of Jesus and His resurrection as though they take place after one another, which they do in the Chronology of Redemption.

Daniel's 70th Week has yet to be fulfilled

The Day of the Resurrection would have been the final day of Daniel's 70th Week from 5 April 26 AD in our Solar Gregorian Calendar to 3 April 33 AD if Israel had accepted Jesus as Messiah.

Then, Jesus would have manifested Himself to Israel on that day in fulfilment of Daniel 9:24 and, in the following days, He would have prepared the earth ready to set up His Kingdom. Since Israel rejected Him, He manifested Himself to His disciples and, for 40 days, prepared them for the Mystery Kingdom instead.

When the 70th Week is re-run, the corresponding final day - the Great and Glorious Day of the Lord - will be the Second Coming of Jesus when He will manifest Himself to believing Israel and set up His Kingdom, again after a 40-day interval when He will prepare the earth ready to set up His Kingdom.

Jesus ascended to the Father on the Day of His Resurrection at Firstfruits

Jesus cleansed the heavenly Tabernacle from the consequences of satan's sin

Ezekiel 28:18 tells us:

You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading (NKJV)

The word for sanctuary means holy place. When satan sinned, he brought corruption to his sanctuaries in heaven and earth. This is why Hebrews 9:23-26 states that even the heavens themselves needed cleansing by the sacrifice of Christ:

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

Colossians 1:19,20 confirms that this cleansing on heaven and earth was accomplished by the sacrifice of Jesus:

For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

This is one of the reasons why we read in John 20:17 that Mary Magdalene could not touch Jesus until He had ascended to heaven on the day of His resurrection because this is probably when he took His blood to heaven and cleansed the heavenly Tabernacle. Only then could He be touched.

When satan fell, both the heavens and the original mineral earth had been tainted by satan's sin and needed cleansing.

The Feasts of Weeks, Firstfruits and Pentecost

In Leviticus 23:5-20, the Lord gave Moses instructions concerning three feasts:

• Firstfruits - on the day after the Saturday sabbath which occurs during the seven days of Unleavened Bread. The priest waves a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest before the Lord.
• Weeks - the fifty days starting at Firstfruits and ending at Pentecost on the day after the seventh sabbath.
• Pentecost - the day after the seventh sabbath from Firstfruits. Two loaves of bread are baked from the grain of the harvest and are waved by the priest before the Lord.

Firstfruits

Although Sunday was the first day of the Jewish week, John 20:1 actually refers to the first day of the sabbaths. This was a specific reference to Firstfruits, the first day of the Jewish Feast of Weeks which ends at Pentecost.

The Hebrew Old Testament word for weeks, shabuwa, means sevens, and the Feast of Weeks is literally the Feast of Sevens because there are seven sabbaths in the fifty days between Firstfruits and Pentecost. The Greek word used for weeks is sabbaton, referring to the seven sabbaths between Firstfruits and Pentecost. What the gospels actually tell us is that Jesus rose on the first day of the Feast of Weeks, at Firstfruits.

1Corinthians 15:20 tells us that Jesus became the firstfruits of them that slept. According to Leviticus 23, this meant that straightaway He had to be presented to the Father.

This explains why Jesus did not let Mary Magdalene touch Him when she recognised Him outside the tomb on the morning after He rose. John 20:17 tells us that Jesus first had to ascend to His Father:

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

Yet we learn from Matthew 28:9 that afterwards He allowed the women to hold Him by the feet:

And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

Later that day, after His return from Emmaus, Jesus told some of the disciples that now they could touch Him:

“See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” (Luke 24:39)

John 20:19 tells us that Jesus did not appear to all His disciples until the evening of that same day of the Resurrection:

It being, therefore, evening, on that day, the first of the sabbaths, and the doors having been shut where the disciples were assembled, through fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith to them, 'Peace to you.' (YLT)

The only possible reason why they could now touch Him is that after the encounter with Mary, Jesus had indeed ascended on that first morning after the Resurrection to be presented to the Father and had fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits. This was His first ascension.

The Holy Spirit was given on the Day of the Resurrection at Firstfruits

John 20:19-22 tells us that when Jesus appeared to His disciples after He had been presented to the Father on the day of His Resurrection, He breathed the Holy Spirit on them and they received the Holy Spirit:

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Less than a week earlier, Jesus had promised that this would happen. In John 16:5-20 we read:

"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged... A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.” Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy."

In this passage, Jesus foretold the sorrow that His death, resurrection and immediate departure to heaven would cause the disciples. However, it was to their advantage that He would be away a short while because He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit. It is commonly thought that the promise in John 16 to send the Holy Spirit refers to the descent of the Holy Spirit on believers at Pentecost. However, the Gospels make it clear that Jesus ascended to the Father and then returned to the disciples on the day of His Resurrection and breathed on them telling them to receive the Spirit:

“Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)

The use of the English word send in John 16 tends to make us think of Jesus in heaven despatching the Holy Spirit to believers on earth. In fact John's Gospel uses the Greek word pempo translated as send 24 times referring to God or Jesus doing the sending. The emphasis is on the sender, not on the remoteness or closeness of the recipient, and the word would apply equally well to Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to the disciples when in the same room as them on the day of His Resurrection.

John 20:19-22 makes it clear that all believers have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit since Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to them in fulfilment of His promise in John 16 on the day of His Resurrection at Firstfruits and the beginning of Weeks. The Holy Spirit was given to change the condition or state of believers so that the very life of Christ indwells them. But also, John 16:5-20 tells us that the Holy Spirit within believers convicts the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

• concerning sin, because they do not believe in Jesus and receive God's gift of salvation through Christ's suffering and death on the Cross in our place;
• and concerning righteousness, because the risen Christ would go to the Father at the Ascension and the world would no longer see the righteousness of Jesus in person;
• and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world - satan - has been judged by God.

This is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so believers were now given the mission of preaching the Gospel through the Holy Spirit within them.

Believers were later anointed at Pentecost with the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to continue the work of Christ in the new Church Age from Pentecost onwards, which had not previously been revealed. Ephesians 2:11-3:10 tells us that in addition to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ for which the Holy Spirit was given to believers after Firstfruits,, a new purpose was now added - that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. In other words, that the glory of God's Plan of the Ages might be made known to the entire angelic realm:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity... By revelation there was made known to me the mystery... which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel... so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

For this purpose, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, a new mystery people, the Church, was created.

The Feast of Weeks

We have seen that in Leviticus 23:5-20, the Lord gave Moses instructions concerning three feasts:

• Firstfruits - on the day after the Saturday sabbath which occurs during the seven days of Unleavened Bread. The priest waves a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest before the Lord.
• Weeks - the fifty days starting at Firstfruits and ending at Pentecost on the day after the seventh sabbath.
• Pentecost - the day after the seventh sabbath from Firstfruits. Two loaves of bread are baked from the grain of the harvest and are waved by the priest before the Lord.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD's Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD...When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it...You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath...You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering...The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering...

The first and last days of Unleavened Bread were times of sacred assembly during which no work was to be done, as on the sabbath. Some scholars have treated the sacred assembly on the first day of Unleavened Bread as a sabbath, and have therefore always treated the next day as Firstfruits and the first day of Weeks. It just so happens that in 33 AD the first day of Unleavened Bread is a sabbath.

However, the seven days of Unleavened Bread start on the 15th day of the 1st month, which could be any day of the week and will vary from year to year. This first day of Unleavened Bread doesn't usually conform to the requirements of Leviticus 23 that Pentecost would fall on the 50th day of Weeks and also on the day after the 7th sabbath of Weeks.

The following chart shows that the only scheme that works for the seven sabbaths of Weeks followed immediately by Pentecost is where Firstfruits, the first day of Weeks, falls on the day after the Saturday sabbath wherever it occurs during the seven days of Unleavened Bread.

FIGURE: The 50 days of Weeks starting at Firstfruits and ending at Pentecost according to the requirement of Leviticus 23

Israel - the Wife of Jehovah

Throughout the Bible, a distinction is maintained between Israel and the Church. One of the ways this distinction is made is between the Wife of Jehovah and the Bride of Christ.

The Book of Deuteronomy, which means repetition of the law, repeats most of the elements of the law contained in the previous three books to a new generation of the children of Israel who had not been born when the law was given nearly forty years earlier, in preparation for entering the promised land of Canaan. Moses presents the law in the form of an ancient marriage contract.

In Deuteronomy 5:1-3, Moses declares that God had entered into a covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai:

Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today."

The Old Testament prophets saw this covenant as a marriage contract. Moses and the prophets warned Israel against adultery by the worship of other gods. Then, in Jeremiah 31:31-33, we learn that the original marriage contract had been broken because of Israel's adultery, but that God will make a New Covenant with Israel:

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

After the division of the kingdom, in the period leading up to the Babylonian captivity, we see Israel separated from God. First we see God issuing a divorce from the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the Book of Hosea, then we see God issuing a divorce from the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the Book of Jeremiah:

Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 3:6-10)

The result of all Israel's adultery would be destruction by Egypt, Assyria and Babylon because Israel had worshipped their gods.

Jeremiah 31 told us that God will make a New Covenant with Israel and Ezekiel 16 tells us that this will be an everlasting covenant, one that is unconditional and will not be broken.

The Feast of Weeks and the Bride of Christ

Not only will the Father be reunited with His wife, Israel, but He has also provided a bride for Christ.

The fifty days of the Feast of Weeks was not a mystery - it was revealed in Leviticus 23. From the moment Jesus returned from heaven at Firstfruits, breathed the Holy Spirit on the believers and they received the Spirit, a Bride was being prepared for Christ. This bride is the body of Christ, with Jesus as the head of the body.

Had Israel accepted Jesus as Messiah, Pentecost would have been fulfilled on the last of the fifty days and two loaves of bread baked from the grain of the harvest - Jew and Gentile - would have been presented to the Father in heaven by Jesus as His bride, the body of Christ.

The Mystery Age - One New Man, the Church, the Bride of Christ

That didn't happen and during the period until Israel accepts Jesus as Messiah to bring about His return, the time of preparation of a bride for Christ has been extended and the mission to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ continues.

However, a new mystery people, the Church, was created at Pentecost in whom both believing Jews and Gentiles are one body, and are added to the body of Christ who is the Head. Ephesians 2:11-3:10 tells us that Christ's purpose in creating this mystery one new man is:

• To create in Himself one new man out of the Gentiles and Jews, thus making peace,
• To reconcile both Gentile and Jewish believers to Himself in one body,
• So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places, in other words the glory of God's Plan of the Ages might be made known to the entire angelic realm:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity... By revelation there was made known to me the mystery... which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel... so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:11-3:10)

Before Israel accepts Jesus as Messiah and once more becomes the Wife of Jehovah through entering into the New Covenant, God is providing His Son Jesus with a Bride - the Church. During the Church Age, the Church is betrothed or engaged to Christ. The Book of Revelation sums up the Church Age in the first three chapters, and then describes the marriage of Christ to His Bride in heaven during the seven years of Tribulation on earth before Christ returns with His Bride to establish His rule on the earth.

Israel did not accept Jesus as Messiah at His First Coming and Pentecost was not fulfilled as prescribed in Joel 2. Believers, not Israel, were anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to continue the work of Christ in the new Church Age from Pentecost onwards, which had not previously been revealed. Ephesians 2:11 - 3:10 tells us that in addition to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ for which the Holy Spirit was given to believers after Firstfruits, a new purpose was now added - that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. In other words, that the glory of God's Plan of the Ages might be made known to the entire angelic realm:

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity... By revelation there was made known to me the mystery... which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel... so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

For this purpose, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, a new mystery people, the Church, was created. Instead of Joel 2 being fulfilled, this new people were anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit to enable them to accomplish their new additional mission during the Church Age.

John 14:12 tells us:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Like Jesus, we are to do His works by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us at Pentecost.

Believers, as the body of Christ being prepared as His Bride, received the Holy Spirit at Firstfruits, and were additionally anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to demonstrate the wisdom of God's Plan of the Ages to bring redemption through Christ Jesus by the victory of His sacrifice and death at Calvary and His resurrection.