Pentecost 2023

Presentation Notes

Lev 23:15-22?

Hopefully we’ve been counting up to this day with anticipation.

What is Pentecost?

• Counted 7 Sabbaths from First fruits
  • Day after
• Pilgrimage feast
• End of the spring festivals
• Sabbath

What is the connection between the feast and the fulfillment in the NT?

• Passover, UB, FF
• Connection to the first Pentecost
  • Tongues of fire, voices, 3000
  • Traditional, but strongly suggested
• Connection to Shavuot
  • FF is the sanctification of the Barley harvest.
    • Because the wave offering is accepted, the rest is accepted too.
    • Like Christ being the Firstfruits of the dead, we are accepted before God and will be acceptable to be raised up unto everlasting life.
  • Shavuot is also a firstfruits, but takes place 50 days later.
    • About the time that the wheat begins to become rip, so it is assumed that in order for this to be considered a firstfruit, it is likely that this was the beginning of the wheat harvest. It may or may not have been harvested on the day of Pentecost, whereas Firsfruits mentions the priest cutting a sheaf from the field.
  • I was interested to see whether barley or wheat was a more predominant food in ancient Israel.
    • Surprisingly it was barley, probably because it did better in years without much rain, withstood harsher conditions, and matured earlier.
      • “The amount and distribution of rainfall together with soil conditions limit the area in Eretz-Israel where wheat is cultivated to the coastal valleys, the Valley of Jezreel, the Upper Jordan Valley, and the Beth-shan Valley. [The Israelites did not conquer these areas at first (Judges 1:19).] In the northern Negev, wheat does well only in rainy years, which are not frequent” (Oded Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 1987, page 89).
    • This was until the time of Greek when modern bread wheat reached the area and was considered favorable. This continued into the Roman period to the point where barley was considered a poor person’s food and animal fodder. (Encyclopedia of Jewish Food).
  • So who cares? Well, the question is, how does the day of Pentecost from Acts chapter 2 relate to the actual ritual and celebration of Shavuot?
    • Well, in many ways the acceptance of the wave offering of the barley represented the acceptance of all produce,
    • But wheat represented in some ways the northern part of Israel and even the gentiles who favored wheat and made it their primary grain.
    • This Shavuot or Pentecost was not not only a mirror of Mt. Sinai, but a partial reversal or inversion of the tower of Babel and the exile.
  • What was the tower of Babel?
    • The people were all gathered in one place with one intent, to reach heaven.
    • It was an act of human will and the flesh. Not sanctified by God.
    • God responded by confounding their language,
    • which caused them to scatter across the face of the earth.
  • What was the fulfillment of the day of Pentecost?
    • A group of people gathered in one place
    • Not focused on their own human ingenuity and effort in an act of the flesh
    • But rather focused on the promise of God
    • In so doing, heaven came down to them in the form of the Holy Spirit.
    • Everyone
      • from diverse locations across the world were gathered
      • heard the message of God’s salvation in their own language,
      • and the kingdom of heaven was established in their hearts.
    • Now, while it was people from all over the world, they were also more specifically people from the nations to which the tribes of Israel were scattered.
    • They are called here Jews and proselytes. So that is
      • Jewish people in general referring to any blood descendent of Israel that had
        • retained their tribal identity and
        • the worship of God,
      • as well as converts to Judaism from among the nations,
        • some of whom may have been descendents of the lost 10 tribes.
  • So spiritually what you have is a reversal or inversion of
    • The exile, the gathering in of scattered Israel
    • The tower of Babel, The bringing in of the nations whose language was confused, causing them to scatter.
    • Mt. Sinai, is when the Mosaic covenant was made and the law was given which separated them from the nations,
  • In doing this there is a sense in which the nations and Israel are united here,
    • No longer separate in Messiah.
    • United for one purpose, serving God.
    • Under one king, the Messiah of Israel.
    • Filled with the same Holy Spirit.
  • Isaiah 56:6-8

6“Also the sons of the foreigner

Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him,

And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—

Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,

And holds fast My covenant—

7Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,

And make them joyful in My house of prayer.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

Will be accepted on My altar;

For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

8The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,

“Yet I will gather to him

Others besides those who are gathered to him.”

• • Now, it would take a while for the realization of this to sink in with the disciples.
    - Not until Peter’s vision was it made abundantly clear that even gentiles who had not been converted to Judaism were to be welcomed in.
    - Never-the-less, these 3000 from various nations would be going home and spread the Gospel to the world, followed by the apostles.
• So Christ, and perhaps the dead saints that were raised with him, being the firstfruits of the dead, were like the FF wave offering, sanctifying the rest of the harvest.
• These 3000 are like an initial firstfruits of the full harvest culminating in the greater Exodus, the ingathering of Israel along with the righteous gentiles.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

40And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

• So about the Holy Spirit, who is he?
  • Traditionally, the Holy Spirit has been identified as the 3rd person of the Trinity.
    • Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
    • The Father is God as we usually imagine Him
      • The One who spoke creation into being
      • Seated in heaven
      • Who we pray to, who Christ prayed to.
      • He works behind the scenes
      • Occasionally manifests on earth, but only in a partial form, otherwise the elements would melt and we would die
      • While He is in one sense everywhere,
      • When he does manifest, it is restricted to an individual location, and usually concealed
        • In a cloud,
        • Behind a veil
        • Covered by his hand
      • Except in the garden of Eden where He walked with man before the fall.
    • The Son is the embodied Word of God
      • He was there with God and as God at creation and
      • Described as the one through whom the world was created.
      • He was embodied in the man Yeshua of Nazareth.
      • The express image of God in human form.
      • Died to bear our sin and was raised incorruptible.
      • Now seated at the right hand of God,
    • The Holy Spirit is the invisible, active side of God
      • Likened to the wind.
      • Always doing something.
        • If He wasn’t, you wouldn’t notice.
        • Even when He is doing something, we sometimes hardly notice
      • The Holy Spirit has many roles.
    • Here’s what Messiah said about the Holy Spirit. This passage is very concise but touches on so many different things.

5“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Nevertheless 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 depart, I will send Him to you. 8And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9of sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 11of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

12“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

• [Recap bold]
• What more could we ask for?
  • And asking is exactly what we need to do.
  • The disciples were praying, in one place, in one accord for 10 days after Messiah ascended.
  • You can be sure they were praying for the Holy Spirit because that is what Yeshua told them to do.
  • To wait in Jerusalem for the promise,
  • “You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
• Messiah says that it is better that he goes away, so that the Holy Spirit will come to us.
  • Yeshua, although he has a glorified body, is still embodied, and can only be in one place at a time on earth.
• However, the Holy Spirit, like the wind, can be manifest everywhere all at once.
  • He can do everything that we need Him to,
    • Help us live godly lives
    • Fulfill our mission on earth
    • Speak the word of God
    • And He can fill us with the power of God to do wonders in Yeshua’s name.
• I want to go back to this idea of asking and waiting.
  • When God promises something, we almost always have to wait for it.
• This is often the difference between acting in the flesh, or the Spirit.
  • Sometimes, we’re supposed to do something, but our flesh wants the opposite.
  • Oftentimes, though, it comes down to patience.
    • We know there is a promise,
    • We want it,
    • but our flesh wants it now, expects it now.
• Let’s look at some examples:
  • Eve - Who had the promise that her seed would crush the serpents head,
    • likely placed so much confidence in Cain that she named her second son, Abel, which meant “vanity” or “nothing”. She realized shortly that that was unfounded and, prophetically, looked to the one that came after.
  • Abraham,
    • had the promise that his son would inherent Canaan
    • but was convinced he needed to bring that promise about in his own power,
    • thus securing an eternal enemy for the truly promised son,
  • Jacob had a promise
    • but took it by cunning
    • and was forced to flee and essentially become a debt slave for 14 years.
  • Moses, realizing he was the deliverer of the Israelites
    • took matters into his own hands
    • and had to flee and become a shepherd for 40 years.
  • Joshua hastily went up against Ai before receiving counsel from the Lord was defeated.
  • etc.
  • We do, however, have examples of those who did wait.
  • David refrained from slaying Saul, though he was anointed as rightful king, perhaps sparing himself war with the son of Saul, or some other curse.
  • Jehosephat was being attacked by Ammon, Moab, and Seir, he didn’t go rally the troops and hire foreign armies to help them. He fasted and prayed and a prophet told him. The Spirit of the Lord came on a man and he said “You don’t need to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord”
    • Guess what? They did just that and God set ambushes against the army and they defeated themselves.
  • The disciples had a promise from the Lord. They were told what to do, and the obeyed.
    • They waited on the Lord.
• But it is not a passive waiting, it’s waiting with expectation.
  • It’s with attention directed toward the promise.
    • The disciples weren’t sitting on their hands.
    • They were praying, in accordance with what He promised them. What else did he say?

Luke 11:9“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

• So it takes asking and waiting.
  • If we’ve received the Holy Spirit to begin with, we don’t have to wait long.
  • However, waiting is key.
• The Holy Spirit does not immediately speak to us, the moment we sit down.
  • This can be discouraging.
    • Sometimes we think, why don’t I feel the presence of God?
    • Why don’t I feel like He hears me?
  • Rather than be discouraged, think of it like a different way of communicating and focus on the promise of God.
    • Recenter on the Gospel
      • Are you trusting in your own actions to get favor with God,
      • or are you placing your trust in Christ as the one who granted you access to the throne?
      • Place your trust again in Him alone.
    • Release anxiety and distraction.
      • If you’re distracted, pay attention to what your mind is going to.
        • What’s at the root?
        • Can I lay this at Christ’s feet?
        • Is it even worth thinking about?
    • Ask God to reveal Himself to you in a new way, to speak to you, to fill you with His Holy Spirit.
      • Have faith in His promise,
      • He’s not going to refuse you.
    • Listen and wait.
      • That doesn’t mean being silent.
      • Bring your requests before Him
      • Tell Him the things you are grateful for.
      • Sing praises
      • But do so with a posture of listening,
        • Expecting it to be a two way conversation.
        • Is He bringing anything to your mind?
        • Revealing anything about your heart or your situation?
      • Give it time.
        • There are so many things vying for our attention these days.
        • Many of those things that are designed to trigger dopamine hits, which create addiction.
        • We must learn to appreciate the peace of God above the entertainment of the world.
        • It’s not easy, but this is how we learn to hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.
        • The voice that’s always there, if we’re patient enough to hear it.

Born of the spirit

Being born again

New heart

Wait for the promise

Guarantee

Source:

https://archive.gci.org/articles/harvest-seasons-of-ancient-israel/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Israelite_cuisine#:~:text=Barley%20(hordeum%20vulgare)%20was%20the,from%20the%20newly%20ripened%20crop.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_Jewish_Food.html?id=gFK_yx7Ps7cC