Pentecost Sunday 2021

Acts 2:1–4 NLT

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

Pentecost Sunday 2021

The Original Pentecost was the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai to Moses by Yeshua

This was Yeshua covenanting himself to the nation of Israel in marriage ceremony.

Yeshua rescued Israel out of Egypt, escorted them through the desert and then married them in an elaborate ceremony at Mt. Sinai.

Exodus 6:6-7 “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt.1

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Exodus 19

Ex 19:3 God and the Lord

the Lord called Him from the Mountain

v. 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians.

v.4 How I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself.

v. 5 covenant

v. 5 the whole earth belongs to Me but you will be special to Me. I will betroth Myself to you.

The word here for “possession” is a very special Hebrew word: segullah. It refers to a king’s most highly prized and most treasured possession. In essence, Israel was being offered the opportunity to be YHVH’s crown jewel. The final clause calls attention to the fact that although every nation and people throughout the world belong to God, His intention was to set Israel aside as a special people, uniquely called above any other. - Richardson, Joel. Sinai to Zion: The Untold Story of the Triumphant Return of Jesus (p. 35). WinePress Media. Kindle Edition. 

God chose the Jewish people as His special inheritance. There is such an important point here that needs to be unpacked a bit. The Lord invited Israel to become a special kingdom, distinct from all of the other nations of the world. This often becomes a matter of confusion or even offense to Gentile Christians. Does this mean that Gentiles are less valuable in God’s eyes than Israelites? Certainly not. As the apostle Peter said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right” (Acts 10:34–35). The reason the Lord chose Israel was to serve as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). A priest acts as a mediator between God and man. Israel was being called to function as a people uniquely devoted to YHVH, who would introduce Him to the rest of the world. As Stuart so rightly states: They were not to be a people unto themselves, enjoying their special relationship with God and paying no attention to the rest of the world. Rather, they were to represent him to the rest of the world and attempt to bring the rest of the world to him.1 This calling was a clear reiteration of what the Lord had already stated hundreds of years previously to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation … and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gn 12:2–3). The Lord’s purpose from the very beginning was to bless “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9). - Richardson, Joel. Sinai to Zion: The Untold Story of the Triumphant Return of Jesus (p. 36). WinePress Media. Kindle Edition. 

“God so loved the world that He chose Israel” - Anglican Scholar Christopher J.H. Wright

v. 9 thick cloud was a wedding canopy

Deuteronomy 5:28-29 God received the people’s wedding vow with great joy even through He knew they would be unfaithful.

But what happened on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 is a major reversal of all that the enemy intended through Israel’s failure to present the continued Gospel of the story to the nations.

Shavuot - feast of weeks marking the grain harvest.

Joels prophecy was an awakening that God had marked Israel as ambassadors to ALL NATIONS to reveal who God was.

God did not want to know and bless and love just the Jewish people but through the Jewish people He wanted to bless the entire world. The original Abrahamic covenant Genesis 12:1-3

Acts 2:16–21 NLT

No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘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. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on my servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below— blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

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.’