A0312_Shavuot & Pentecost
Date: 27th May 2007 (Sunday AM) Ref: A0312
Place: Kambah P.S.
Title: Shavuot & Pentecost
Text: & Exodus 19:16:20
Illust: Wednesday was the Jewish feast period of Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks. It is 50 days after the Feast of first fruits following Passover. Leviticus 23:15-16 15 ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. (NKJV).
The Greek word ‘Pentecost’ comes from the period of 50 days. This AM, I want to look at this feast from a number of different aspects & bring out some understanding of the law, the church, and our individual personal blessing
I. The Law
A. Written on Stone
i. Shavuot, the Feast of weeks coincides with the giving of the Law on Mt Horeb, 50 days after the exodus from Egypt. In our text God comes down onto the mountain to speak to His people. It is a powerful & awe inspiring manifestation. During this time God gives Moses the Law
Exodus 24:12 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.” (NKJV)
Exodus 31:18 And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (NKJV)
ii. It is written by the hand of God on Stone tablets. Think about why stone?
In 1799 the French discovered in Egypt what became known as the Rosetta stone. Up until that time the Egyptian Hieroglyphs had not been able to be deciphered. The Rosetta stone has the same passage of writing in 2 Egyptian languages & in classical Greek. It was through the study of this stone created in 196BC and able to be read almost 2000 years later that eventually led to the ability to translate the hieroglyphs.
iii. Stone has a sense of permanence of a secure & firm foundation. The law of God is a permanent statute, indeed Jesus said.
Matthew 5:17-18 17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (NKJV)
B. Written on Hearts
i. As I mentioned during the introduction, the Greek name for this feast used in the New Testament is the word ‘Pentecost’ this is the Pentecost as recorded in & Acts 2:1-3 – Notice that the outpouring, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit also is in a powerful and awe inspiring manifestation. – This time however it is not the law written on stone, it is a more personal and powerful expression.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (NIV)
ii. Both Paul and the writer of Hebrews want us to understand that when the Holy Spirit was poured out, we have a living witness of the law.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (NKJV)
2 Corinthians 3:3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. (NKJV)
It is not cold hard stone, a list of do’s and don’ts but it is to be dwelling in us as our delight.
Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. (NKJV)
iii. This gives us a greater level of power and ability to live as God would have us live, in obedience to Him. It gives us access into His very presence, through the shed blood of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 10:19-20 19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, (NKJV)
II. The Harvest
A. Barley Harvest
i. Another aspect of Shavuot is that it takes place during the spring grain harvesting season which commences at the Feast of First Fruits straight after Passover.
Deuteronomy 16:9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. (NIV)
It actually marks the end of the Barley season the early first fruits and the beginning of the wheat harvest.
ii. Barley in the Bible is a very prominent grain, more often used for the poor and for feedstock.
1 Kings 4:28 They also brought barley and straw to the proper place, for the horses and steeds. (NKJV)
John 6:9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” (NKJV)
iii. Symbolically it gives us a picture of Israel,
Judges 7:13 And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, “I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.” (NKJV)
This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel!
Of the things God has chosen to use. ~Don’t look much, but mighty through God
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; (NKJV)
B. Wheat Harvest
i. Nov 7th this year, will mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of this church, its Birthday so to speak. Interesting that throughout history the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ is considered to have occurred on that Pentecost / Shavuot following the crucifixion, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers who until that time had been quietly gathering in the upper room.
ii. When;- & Acts 2:1-6 Peter boldly preaches to the crowd under the anointing of the Holy Spirit & & Acts 2:36-41 – 3000 souls saved. The church is born.
iii. Throughout the New Testament reference is made to the church as being likened to the wheat harvest:
Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (NKJV)
Matthew 13:24-25 24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. (NKJV)
Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ” (NKJV)
iv. You & I gentiles, not of the children of Israel, the barley are this Wheat harvest
III. The Marriage
A. The Bride & The Bridegroom
i. Let’s look finally at the personal blessing that is the promise of Shavuot of Pentecost. During Shavuot some synagogues decorate their platform with a canopy of flowers and plants so that it resembles a chuppah, this is the canopy that is traditionally used in Jewish weddings. – This is because in Judaism:
Shavuot is mystically referred to as the day the matchmaker (Moses) brought the bride (the Jewish people) to the chuppa (Mt Sinai) to marry the bridegroom (God).
ii. During various feasts in Judaism they read different books of the OT. During Shavuot it is traditional to read Ruth, that wonderful little book that tells the story of the faithfulness of Ruth the Moabitess to her mother in law Naomi and her eventual marriage to Boaz and thereby insertion into the line of David & ultimately Jesus.
Story occurs during the harvest times of First Fruits and Shavuot.
Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. (NIV)
iii. The picture is of God, reaching out in love to have an intimate relationship with His people. More than all the pagan worship and materialism, this is to be a close personal relationship. This is what He desired of the children of Israel at Mt Sinai.
Exodus 19:5-6 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (NKJV)
B. The Bride of Christ
i. Through rebellion Israel rarely lived in that place of close relationship with God. But it is still God’s heart, a close intimate relationship with you. This is the purpose of Pentecost / Shavuot. Jesus drew on the imagery of the marriage & as the church, the wheat harvest, we are the Bride of Christ.
Ephesians 5:25-27 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (NKJV)
ii. You can come to Jesus, knowing your sins are forgiven, empowered to love & serve Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit available to all who would ask.
iii. We need to continually refresh ourselves in the presence & power of God. Holy Spirit burn away materialism, carnality, Holy Spirit fill us a fresh with your power and love.