Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study

Pentecost

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:1-2

Pentecost is the 5th of eight feasts, sometimes called the second of three Great Feasts of the Lord established before God created man.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,

Genesis 1:14

Seasons in Hebrew is mow`ed, an appointed time, meeting, or feast. A place of, assembly, congregation… God appointed These Feasts, which were formally established in Leviticus 23.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.

Leviticus 23:1

Convocations is miqra’ something called out, i.e. a public meeting, a rehearsal.

Pentecost is the conclusion of the Feast of Weeks. A week is seven days. Seven weeks is 49 days. The fiftieth day is Pentecost. Pente is fifty. The Feast of Weeks follows the Feast of First Fruits, the beginning of the forty-nine-day harvest marked by a daily counting of the Omer. An Omer was a dry measure that would be about two quarts of wheat today. The counting of the Omer signified the connection between Passover and the giving of the Torah (The Ten Commandments) to Moses on Mount Sinai or Shavuot. Shavuot was the first Pentecost.

It is important to note that the Great Feast of Passover, which originated in Exodus 12, contains three feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. Jesus was the fulfillment of all three feasts. Biblically speaking, Fulfillment means to give the correct interpretation of something. Think of it as the difference between seeing a photograph of someone and then meeting them for the first time in person. The meeting is the fulfillment. Jesus fulfilled all three Feasts. He was crucified on the day of Passover. He was in the tomb during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was resurrected at the commencement of the Feast of First Fruits. Hence, Paul is speaking literally in 1 Corinthians 15.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:20

The God’s chosen people were rehearsing the death and resurrection of Jesus for at least 1500 years but missed Jesus when He came. That should give all of us reason to pause and reflect.

Shavuot

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 

Exodus 19:16

The giving of the Law, the Torah, the Ten Commandments came amidst a storm after three days of consecration. Some versions say sanctify.

When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Exodus 19:10-11

Consecrate is qadash –  prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate.

In Acts chapter two, the 120 had consecrated themselves in prayer. They were of one accord. Accord in Greek is homothymadón

Homothymadón is a unique Greek word, used 10 of its 12 New Testament occurrences in the Book of Acts, helps us understand the uniqueness of the Christian community. Homothumadon is a compound of two words meaning to “rushalong” and “in unison”. The image is almost musical; a number of notes are sounded which, while different, harmonise in pitch and tone. As the instruments of a great concert under the direction of a concert master, so the Holy Spirit blends together the lives of members of Christ’s church.

– Strongs Concordance-

The first Pentecost was characterized by rebellion of all involved, including Moses, who broke the first tablets in a fit of rage when he saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. In contrast, the fulfillment of Pentecost was characterized by radical obedience to the command of Jesus among all involved. The first Pentecost took place after three days of waiting for the law. It seems to me those three days were a foreshadowing of three days in the tomb before the fulfillment of the law came in the resurrected Jesus.

The fulfillment of Pentecost came after ten days in the upper room. We know it was ten days because Jesus ascended on the 40th day of the Feast of Weeks. Pentecost came ten days later. The first Pentecost began with thunder and lightning, a thick cloud, and a very loud trumpet blast... The fulfillment of Pentecost came with a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, that filled all the house… The people were terrified on the first Pentecost. The fulfillment of Pentecost  brought the comforter.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

John 14:26

The promised Holy Spirit came. Then Galilaens, Parthians, and Medes, Elamites, and Mesopotamians, Judaeans and Cappadocians, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, heard everyone speak the in their own language.

Approximately two thousand years after God confounded the language of men at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, Holy Spirit restores the understanding of the very same people groups at Pentecost.

The motivation for building a tower to heaven was self glorification.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

Genesis 11:4

Name is Shem, ironically pronounced Shame.  It means reputation, fame, and glory. They wanted to glorify their name, not God’s.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

Genesis 11:6

The people in Genesis 11 were of one accord to glorify themselves. Therefore God broke the accord.

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

Genesis 11:7

In contrast, the 120 were in one accord. Holy Spirit came, restored thier understanding and they did

hear them speak in their tongues the wonderful works of God.

Acts 2:11

How ironic that the root issue in Genesis 11 is rectified in verse 11 of Acts 2.  It’s no coincidence that self-glorification remains the core struggle for the body of Christ today. Let’s pay attention as we move on in Acts. Are the Apostles and disciples primarily focused on their identity, authority, gifting, and power? Or does their spiritual self-esteem take a back seat for His namesake and glory?

Maranatha

Brian and Cathy Gray Bible study

The Lord’s Feasts

Passover

According to the Hebrew calendar, this year’s Passover celebration (Pesach) begins at sundown on April 21- and ends at sundown on April 22. This is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread April 22-29 and culminates with the Feast of First Fruits April 27-28. In contrast, Easter is on Sunday, March 31, 2024.

How did we get here?

After the 2nd century, Christianity sought to divorce itself from Judaism. The church became “catholic”, which means “universal”. This was in direct contradiction to God’s plan and accompanying warning in Romans 11. 

do not be arrogant toward the branches (Judaism). If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Rom 11:18

How quickly they forgot that Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi who came to His own. That His own rejected Him at the time John 1:11-13 did not change His identity. Neither did it alter God’s plan to redeem all of mankind through His chosen people.

In the course of rejecting Judaism, God’s original sacred Hebrew calendar was changed from a Lunar to a Solar one. This paved the way to changing the Sabbath from the last day that we call Saturday to the first day that we call Sunday. That seems a bit arrogant toward the branches. Passover was renamed “Good Friday” and “First Fruits” became Easter. The discrepancy created by the calendar change is the reason why Easter falls more than three weeks before the true Passover this year. If that weren’t arrogant enough, they added pagan influences such as Easter (fertility) eggs and “Easter Bunnies” and called or at least implied them to be Holy.  Many of these changes took place at the First General Council of the Church held at Nicea in 325 AD.  Why you ask? Part of the answer is found in the belief that God had rejected the Jewish people because they rejected Jesus as their Messiah and then demanded He be crucified. The error continues today as supersessionism or replacement theology that regards the gentile church as God’s replacement for Israel.  

Does it matter?

After all didn’t Jesus dismiss the Pharisees who questioned the legality of His actions on the Sabbath that,

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27-28

Didn’t Paul rebuke the Galatians for keeping the Feasts?

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Gal 4:9-11

Unfortunately, these arguments miss the point. Having fulfilled the law, Jesus proclaimed the Sabbath as our privilege not a legal requirement for our righteousness. The actual context of Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians in chapter four is a continuation from the previous chapter. 

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Gal 3:1-3

Both Jesus and Paul bring correction to the error of trying to fulfill the law unto righteousness via the flesh. Apart from giving our lives to Jesus, nothing we do makes us righteous. In reality, Paul told the Corinthians to celebrate the Feasts but exhorted them to do so correctly.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Cor 5:8

Hence we are not legally mandated to keep the Sabbath and the Feasts. 

We get to!

There are seven feasts in total. Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles. Jesus has fulfilled the first four. Incidentally, the word “fulfilled” does not mean “replaced” or “done away with” as so many assume. Rather “fulfilled” means “to give the correct interpretation”. God often presents truth in the form of a picture. For example, baptism is a public pictorial demonstration of an inner decision, death, and rebirth. We are brought under the water as a symbol of our death and then raised as a new creation. Similarly, The Lord’s Feasts are a pictorial blueprint of God’s ultimate plan for the redemption of His entire creation from the Fall in Genesis 3. 

Origins

You will notice that I did not use the term The Jewish Feasts. This is important because God first proclaimed His Feasts in Genesis 1. As in the case of many verses, the true meaning is distorted by the English translation.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, Gen 1:14

It is worthy to note that, the NIV omits the word seasons entirely. Season is mow`ed in Hebrew and means an appointed place, appointed time, sacred season, set feast, appointed season, appointed meeting.

God created lights in the expanse of the heavens (the stars and planets) to established His calendar that included the appointed times when He would meet with His people in spirit and eventually in person.

Taken as a whole they are an invitation to meet with God and understand the scheduled outline for His entire redemptive plan. What makes this even more poignant is that

God established His Feasts as His redemptive calendar on the fourth day before He created Man!

…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,.for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. Eph 1:4-10

We have further confirmation in Leviticus 23 where the Lord gives Moses specific instructions for celebrating all His feasts.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. Lev 22:1-2

Once again, feasts are mow`ed. They are proclaimed as holy convocations. Convocation is miqra’ a dress rehearsal. God gave Moses a blueprint of His plan that the Jews rehearsed for 1500 years and continue to rehearse today.

Passover was the prophetic declaration of Jesus’s crucifixion.

This is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread where He took away the sin of the world then the Feast of First Fruits which was His resurrection. Fifty days later Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Pentecost in Acts 2. Now the feasts of Trumpets, (Jesus’ return) Atonement, (His Judgment) and Tabernacles (His Rest) remain to be fulfilled by Jesus.

We will be covering Jesus depicted in Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits over the next several weeks. Once again, keep in mind that understanding the Lord’s Feasts is not a religious/ legalistic practice. Rather they broaden our view of God’s total plan. They increase our faith as we see Jesus first presented pictorially in the Feasts and then later fulfilled by Him in person. They build our hope in the blessed hope. Titus 2:11-14  Having seen God’s blueprint for redemption partially fulfilled we have even more assurance that He will complete what He started. Isaiah 55:8-11 The sheer complexity and mathematical impossibility of mere chance or coincidence being the cause of it all only increase our reverence and awe of His omniscience and His perfect, eternal sovereign will.

Maranatha!