Pentecost 2023
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[Intro]
Happy Pentecost. What we will be focusing on today is Pentecost. History about the day and why we celebrate it.
Now traditionally as Christians I think we often think right away about what happened in Acts chapter 2. At least that’s usually my first thought. But it’s good to have a general knowledge about the day and connections from the Old Testament to what we see happen in Acts chapter 2. For some of you in here, you may know every fact about Pentecost and the history of the day. For others, you might have very little knowledge. No matter how many times you read about Pentecost though, it’s thrilling.
[Pray]
[Body]
Now we’re going to be doing a bit of jumping around today in the scriptures.
First I wanna talk about the history of the day, and how it connects to what we see in the New Testament. Pentecost is a Jewish festival. It is 50 days after their celebration of passover. Pentecost comes from the Greek word that means fiftieth. Passover started when the Israelites were in slavery by Egypt and the angel of death passed over the houses of all who had the blood of the lamb on their doorframe. The Israelites escape out of Egypt by the power of God and on the fiftieth day the Israelites are at Mt. Sinai and Moses goes up the mountain to see God. He receives the Torah and God establishes His covenant with Israel. This is the first Pentecost in Jewish tradition. Let’s read a little about the experience at Mt. Sinai.
16 On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled. 17 Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.
Think about the description of God’s presence here, thunder, lightning, dense cloud, and he descended on the mountain in the form of fire. Also remember, when God was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he came by cloud and fire.
During the time that Moses was with God on the mountain, some of the Israelites also created a golden calf and began worshiping it. About 3,000 people died for the punishment of this sin.
Now think about God’s dwelling place and where the Jews praised Him as he lived among the them throughout all this time from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He had a dwelling place in the tabernacle and eventually in the temple of Jerusalem.
Now let’s get some context about what’s going on in Acts 2. A lot of time has passed from this first Pentecost at Mt. Sinai to the Pentecost in Acts 2. The tribes of the Israelites are scattered all over the place. But Pentecost was a big festival, and all the Jews would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate. So you had Jews from different backgrounds, different cultures, and speaking different languages. So even though they were all Jews, you had a very large and diverse crowd coming together.
Also another note about Pentecost is that it was also called the Feast of Weeks. It happened between two harvests. They would have just finished up the barley harvest and now would be starting the wheat harvest.
There was an important instruction from God about an offering to be made on Pentecost. You can read about it in Leviticus chapter 23, but we’re going to focus on one specific point, found in Leviticus 23:17
17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops.
Now reading that at first it might not sound like anything too crazy. But you have to think about this symbolically. If you read more from that chapter you’ll see the Jews were also commanded to make animal sacrifices, which was very common. However, typically God did not allow leavened bread to be offered with animal sacrifices. From the verse we just read, God says it should have yeast. Which means it is leavened bread. Now why did God typically not have them use leavened bread as an offering with sacrifices? Leavened bread often symbolized corruption and sin.
You can see it used that way in many scriptures: here’s a couple
6 “Watch out!” Jesus warned them. “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
He was warning them about the bad teaching of doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Leaven in this way represents sin that begins to grow and grow and corrupt and more and more.
So if leavened bread was often forbidden by God to be used in offerings, why was it okay now? And why was it two loaves? You gotta wonder what the Jews thought when they first heard this instruction.
A common interpretation is this: God was foreshadowing the work of Christ to come. Which was to provide a way for sinners to be seen as righteous and acceptable before God. And why two loaves? Because God would unite Jews and Gentiles as one body in Christ.
Alright we’re getting closer to diving into Acts 2, but I want to give one more bit of context. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, He repeatedly appeared before the disciples over a period of 40 days. And before he left them for good, physically speaking, he gave them an instruction.
3 During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
4 Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So before Jesus left them, they knew they were to sit and wait in Jerusalem until they received the promised gift, the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t tell them how long to wait or how it would happen. They just knew to wait and that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now Acts 2. We’re going to read 2:1-21
1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”
14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.
19 And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
20 The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’
What a scene we have here. And the picture given in the first few verses when the Holy Spirit descends on God’s people makes so much sense when you imagine all the other depictions given to us about the presence of God coming down on a place. From the Israelites being lead out of Egypt and on Mt. Sinai, roaring thunder, lightning, wind, cloud, Fire. And what do we see here? “The sound of a mighty windstorm that filled the house. And the Holy Spirit came upon them in what looked like flames or tongues of fire.”
Now picture God’s dwelling place. Earlier we briefly mentioned how he dwelled among the Israelites. The last place God dwelled with them, before Christ, was in the Temple of Jerusalem. So picture this new covenant taking place because of the Sacrifice that Christ made. God now dwells inside of us. From the great temple in Jerusalem, the city where this great Pentecost happened, to now living inside of believers. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. This promise of him living inside of us through the Holy Spirit is true today for all of us, as believers.
19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
The Holy Spirit isn’t a just tag on us to say yep that persons saved. There’s so much we gain from having the Spirit inside of us. Why do you think Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem before receiving the gift? He told them about the great plans He had for them to spread the Gospel throughout the whole world, starting in Jerusalem. They had been learning from Jesus, God in the flesh, for years. But He said first, you must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This was important. This is why Jesus said He had to leave.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
The world, in terms of the unbelievers, cannot receive Him. This is a gift for those who have placed their faith in Christ. And this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, from the previous verses we just read, will never leave you.
26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
Studying the Word of God is important, but it can be tough. There’s a lot to go through and understand. Many tough topics. We must rely on the Holy Spirit. He will teach us. And when it comes time to exercise that knowledge to the world, the Holy Spirit will be there to remind us of what we’ve been taught from the Word of God.
When the Jews celebrate Pentecost, they are thankful for the Torah they received. Torah, in Hebrew, can mean teaching, direction, guidance and law.
It’s amazing the parallels you see here between The first Passover and Pentecost celebrated by the Jews to the Passover where Christ was sacrificed and the first Pentecost celebrated by Christians. Christ fulfilled prophecy and was sacrificed during passover as the lamb of God. The ultimate sacrifice to wash away the sins of the world. And now on Pentecost you see the birth of the first church. The body of Christ through the Holy Spirit. Who will teach, direct, and guide. Just as the Torah was given to the Israelites so many years to go.
I don’t know if there’s a significance to the number, but it’s interesting that at Mt. Sinai, 3,000 Israelites were killed because of breaking the law of God. Here at Pentecost in Acts, you can read later on in Chapter 2 how Peter continued to preach to his Jewish brothers and 3,000 became followers of Christ.
3,000 were killed at Mt. Sinai at the first Pentecost for breaking the law and 3,000 were saved at the first Pentecost under this new covenant by accepting Christ.
We can’t save ourselves by our own works. We can only be saved by faith in Christ alone. And likewise, we can’t disciple properly to other people without the power of God. We must rely on the Holy Spirit.
We won’t be diving into the spiritual gifts today, but you got a glimpse of them from what we read in Acts 2. God’s indwelling by the Holy Spirit empowers believers to do incredible things. And it’s not that we command God to do anything, but it’s strictly how God can work through us. He is the power and he is in command.
When it comes to how we live for God, it’s easy to mainly think about our dependence on Him to resist sin. Which is totally true. But that’s not all. Really, in everything we do for the kingdom of God, we are dependent on Him. Pray that God works through you by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not a matter of, well maybe I didn’t receive that part. I believe Christ saved me, but I don’t know if I really got the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a promise to you as a believer. Depend on Him and God will do amazing things for His Kingdom through you.