Happy Friday church family!

We are in the middle of the Jewish festival of Shavuot – or “Weeks”. This is also known to us as the holiday of Pentecost – or  “Fiftieth” (day). Look to the end of the Weekender for more on Pentecost. We celebrate how the Holy Spirit came down on the Apostles as recorded in Acts chapter 2. This Spirit – the third person of the Trinity – was promised by Jesus before He ascended back to the Father. Jesus actually told His disciples that it was better for Him to return to heaven so that the Spirit would come.

The Spirit is so important! He is truly God with us – He is God IN us! The Spirit has many roles as in the life of the believer. He lives in us – illuminating truth, convicting us of sin, and empowering us to live for Him. He gives us new life and seals us for our eternal inheritance. We are to be led by the Spirit in all that we do. This is the intended life of the believer.

We live in the age of the Spirit – let us strive to follow Him as we serve God, minister to others, and witness to an unbelieving world. Someday “soon”, Jesus will return just as He said He would. The Spirit and bride say “Come, Lord Jesus!”

-- In faith, Pastor Eric

“Afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29 NIV

Shavuot (weeks) – Pentecost (fiftieth “day”)

Joel 2:28-32; Acts 1:8, 2:1-11, Exodus 19, Exodus 32, Exodus 34:22-23, Leviticus 23:15-22, Deuteronomy 16:9-12, Numbers 28:26-31

Leviticus 23:15-17 – 15 “ ‘From the day after the Sabbath (after Passover), the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering (First Fruits), count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits (of the wheat harvest) to the Lord.”

The biblical festival Shavuot (meaning “weeks”) or Pentecost (meaning “fiftieth”) was established by God as one of the seven festivals of Israel. God established this festival as an offering of new grain – the beginning of the wheat harvest in Israel. That said, this festival very quickly became associated with the giving of the Law in Exodus 19-32 on Mount Sinai – which began roughly fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt.

This festival is different than the other six for a number of reasons. First, it is celebrated by itself in between the Spring feasts and the Fall feasts (each season has three festivals close together), though it is closer to and counted from the Spring feasts. Second difference is just that. Instead of having a specific day, it is counted from the day after the Sabbath after Passover – counting either seven “weeks” plus a day, or “fifty” days. Third, this offering specifically includes two loaves – made with yeast! This is the only time that an offering is commanded to have leaven. Typically, leaven symbolizes impurity and sin throughout the rest of the Old and New Testaments. So what accounts for these differences?

I think God clearly wants to connect Pentecost back to Passover and the Festival of First Fruits. Just as Jesus was crucified as our Passover Lamb (paying for our sin-debt) and then rose as the First Fruits of the resurrection on that festival day, Jesus bears a great amount of significance to Pentecost. How does Jesus relate to this second “first fruits” harvest festival? The offering is accompanied with a sin offering – which is what Jesus fulfilled on Passover. Now that the eternal sin offering was accomplished, the two loaves – even with leaven – are now acceptable to God.

Looking at the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2, we can relate those two loaves to the Jews and the Gentiles – everyone comes to God with an even playing field – filled with sin, bought and paid for through a Savior. This is foreshadowed even in the Leviticus passage... the seemingly unrelated verse after the directions for the Festival of Weeks and before the Festival of Trumpets states: “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’ ” What harvest are we talking about in the Festival of Weeks? The new grain – the wheat – that is symbolized with the new creation enabled by Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection – points to the harvest of believers that are made up of those who own the land, yes – but also for the poor and the foreigner. The Jew and the Gentile.

This is additionally confirmed in the Acts 2 account. Jesus had told his followers to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit which would give them power and enable them to be witnesses for Him. When you read Acts 2, you see that the Spirit descended on the apostles, and they spilled out into the streets praising God in all sorts of different languages – heard by all those who were in Jerusalem. Why were there a bunch of folks in Jerusalem? God ordained three of the seven festivals to be pilgrimage occasions where the Jewish men were required to travel to Jerusalem for the feast. These include Passover in the Spring, Booths in the Fall, and Pentecost. We have seen two of these festivals used by God as a backdrop for His great redemptive plan – Passover and Pentecost. God packs Jerusalem with witnesses of His actions. Jerusalem at Pentecost was potentially even MORE crowded than at Passover. Jews from all over – and non-ethnic Jews also who had adopted Judaism (called proselytes or converts depending on the translation) – filled the streets. And God picked this moment to descend in power and lavish the Holy Spirit on the apostles. And the gospel is preached to Jew and Gentile – and 3000 are saved.

Interesting note about 3000 – Remember how this festival celebrated the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai? Remember how Moses was on the mountain a long time and the Israelites decided to make their own gods and an amount of them were killed? The amount? 3000. With the giving of the law, 3000 Israelites died in their sin. With the coming of the Spirit, 3000 Jews and Gentiles were saved FROM their sin through repentance and belief in Jesus – the first fruits of the new covenant believers.