May 27, 2001

The Pattern of Pentecost

Acts 2

I have really been looking forward to teaching this message, because our goal today is to be reminded that God wants us to rejoice. After four weeks of studying and learning spiritual warfare, how not to let the devil get the advantage over us, our goal today is to rejoice. I'm glad we had a study of spiritual warfare, and I hope a bunch of you got the victory over whatever the devil has been hassling you with. I hope everyone of you here today is walking in the joy of the Lord.

I told you last week that this was going to be a different kind of sermon, now I have to put my money where my mouth is. I want us to go off in a couple different directions, and then make it all come together and fit. If I can do that, then you will rejoice with me in how God's Word can simultaneously be both complex, and wonderfully simple. And if I mess it up, then in a little while when we have our covered dish lunch, you can come sit down and ask me; "What was that all about?" And rejoice that the preaching is over, and now the preacher is quiet.

Pentecost Sunday. That is what today is, but what does that mean? And why do we care? And why does God care? Is Pentecost just another one of those old Hebrew feast days that the church is supposed to study about, or does it really mean something to us today?

From time to time I try and remind all of us that our American, western cultural way of looking at things, and understanding things is not always biblically accurate. Sometimes it causes us problems when we read the Bible. Why is that? God revealed His truth in a particular context, and it was in the context of a middle eastern, Hebrew way of looking at things. Not that the Hebrews of 2,000 years ago had it all together, because they didn't, but God chose to use that culture to express His truth.

Many years ago, a Negro writer from Knoxville, Alex Haley, wrote a very famous book called Roots. It was a story of Negro slaves being brought to America, and where they had come from, what their cultural roots were. The culture that you come from, the roots that you have, will affect the way that you understand the world that you live in.

The culture that we live in has it's roots in ancient Greece. Which is OK, but as Christians it causes us a problem, because the Bible has it's roots in Israel, and the Greek and the Hebrew world views are very different. The Bible is not written from a Greek point of view, our point of view, it is written from a Hebrew point of view, and that changes everything. Paul was a Hebrew, Jesus was a Hebrew, every book in the Bible except two were written by Hebrews, and that world view was different from ours.
The western mind sees Bible prophecy as predictions that get fulfilled. God makes a prophecy, we look to see if it has been fulfilled, Ok, check it off, go on to the next. Nope, that one is still pending, Ok, we wait on that one, go on to something else.

The Hebrew mind sees things differently. Those people saw prophecy as a pattern that repeated itself.
God would give a prophecy, and then it would happen, perhaps in a different form than the prophet expected, and then it might repeat itself in another form, and then it might repeat itself again.
You would have a pattern of events that would replay themselves in different forms under different circumstances.

In our culture, we don't usually think in terms of patterns that repeat themselves, but to those people, it was natural. To them, the things that God showed them, or taught them, or had them do, were all part of a pattern that would be important to them back then, and also in the future. To their children, and to us.
Now: hold that thought, and let's go off in a different direction. Pentecost. What was the feast of Pentecost, how did God give it to Israel, and what does it mean to us?

Pentecost get's it's name from the word for five or fifty, penta, pentagon, pentagram, because Pentecost comes fifty days after the feast of first fruits. So let's go look at feasts for a minute.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to the 23rd chapter of Leviticus. Verse 1: " And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts." And then God proceeds to explain the various feasts, and the first one is Passover, verse 5.
We talked about Passover a lot last month, how the Passover lamb symbolized Jesus Christ as the lamb of God, slain for our sins. Just as the Passover lamb had it's blood put on the door to cover the sins of those people; Christ died on the day of Passover, the blood of Christ covers us, and there is much more about the Passover lamb that we won't repeat today.

Verse 6 talks about the feast of unleavened bread, a memorial feast, which speaks to us of the Lord's Supper, the communion feast which we have regularly to remember the Lord Jesus in His death, until He comes again. Jesus was both the Passover Lamb, and the Bread of Life, and these first two feasts point us toward Him.

The third feast was the feast of First Fruits, or the Wave Offering, which always fell on the first Sunday following those first two feasts. Verses 10 and 11 tells us about how those people would take a sheaf of grain and wave it into the air, hold it up and wave it before the Lord, as an offering of a promise of things to come. Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the day of the feast of first fruits, and the gospels also mention that when Jesus rose from the dead, there were other people resurrected also, that had been dead and buried, and they came forth alive into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus and other believers, the first fruits from the dead. Those resurrections fulfilled the pattern of the first fruits from the ground, raised up before the Lord, a promise of things to come.

About this time it starts to be obvious that if all these Old Testament feasts pointed very directly to the things of the church, then just maybe we ought to see how the other feasts indicate things pertinent to the church.

Next came the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. Fifty days after the feast of First Fruits, seven sabbaths, seven weeks, plus one day. Fifty days. Lets read from verse 15: "And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Lev 23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals;" - a deal was a unit of measurement - "they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD."

In verse 16, it says that they were to offer a new meat offering to the Lord. The King James Bible says meat, some Bibles say meal, it is helpful for us to know just what it was. Does everybody in here know that when you make a mince meat pie, that doesn't necessarily mean it has meat in it? Kind of the same idea, these loaves of the meat offering didn't have any meat in them either. These were loaves of bread that were made with barley, wheat, frankincense, oil, and yeast, or leaven. Those loaves symbolize believers. That's why they have leaven in them.

The Feast of Unleavened bread is all about Jesus, the Bread of Life, and there was no sin in him at all, so that loaf had to be without any leaven. Believers are a different matter. There is sin in the church, believers are not sinless, unfortunately, so God told the people to bake those loaves with leaven in them.

Also, they were to bake two loaves of bread. What do you suppose that symbolizes? And then look at what they were supposed to do with the loaves, verse 18: "And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD." Any time an offering is put into the fire, it is to be totally consumed for the Lord, totally given over to Him. Israel was never totally given over to the Lord, how about us as Christians? Are we totally given over to God? That was the goal, that was the pattern. How are we doing?

Then in verse 21, God tells the people how they were to observe that feast day: "And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations." Does this have anything to do with us today? It sure does, and so does the next verse: " And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God."

Way back in the Old Testament, God is giving us an object lesson in this feast of what His church is, and what it is supposed to be. If there had never been any such thing as the church, we might have had trouble figuring these things out, but we said before that God reveals Himself in patterns, and this pattern really unfolds itself plainly in the New Testament church, when it came into existence several thousand years later.

Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 1: "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,"
Luke wrote the gospel of Luke, and Acts takes up where that gospel left off, apparently Luke was writing it to his friend Theophilus. Verse 2: "Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
Act 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
Act 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me." Verse 8:
"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."

Go chapter 2, verse 1: " And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Act 2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
Act 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Act 2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God."

This was the day that the church began. On this day, Pentecost, God took the pattern of the Old Testament feasts, and brought it back around again to include everyone that trusted in Him for salvation, no matter what their ethnic or racial origins were. We mentioned a minute ago that there were two loaves, and now we see why. Romans, Arabs, Jews, Medes, Egyptians, they all heard the gospel in their own language, and there were 3,000 people saved that day.

Paul tells us in Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." When God gave the Law, and the Feast days, and the Covenant at Mount Sinai back in Exodus, who participated in it? The Jews. God's covenant of salvation went to them first, didn't it? On the day the church began, salvation was extended to everyone with out any discrimination as to race or origin, God is indicating that the gospel is available equally to all, no matter what race they belong to.

Two loaves. With leaven in them. One loaf for the nation of Israel, and one loaf for the church. A wonderful pattern that God had planned thousands of years ahead of time, and it still fits today.

Let's talk about the fifty days. Better yet, let's put all the Spring Feasts into context. Think: Movie time. Put your brains into the Ten Commandments mode, great movie. Charleton Heston is doing a fine job acting the part of Moses, we would expect nothing less from the president of the National Rifle Association. But thinking our way through that movie will probably help us picture the feasts.

The first Passover lamb was slain while the Israelites were still in bondage to Egypt, right? The next day, they started out of Egypt, and then they came to the shore of the Red Sea. So there they were, trapped against the shore, Pharaoh's army closing in behind them, and they were afraid. This is the same pattern of what happened when Jesus was crucified. His disciples were all afraid and distressed, thinking that Jesus was dead, and that everything was lost, the world, the flesh and the devil had won, they were up against it, it's hopeless.

Turn to Exodus 14, verse 13: "And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever." The word salvation in Hebrew is yashuwah. The same Hebrew word for Jesus. When you say salvation in Hebrew, you say Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? The Hebrew language is like it is for a very special reason, everything in Hebrew means something, and God planned it that way. It is part of the pattern. There are no accidents with God, there are no surprises. Isn't that wonderful?

God told Moses to hold up his hand and stretch out his staff over the sea, and the waters parted. That night the Israelites crossed over the Red Sea, and came out safe the next morning on the other side. Then Moses lifted up his staff again, and the waters came together and destroyed the Egyptians. That morning, as they came out on the east bank of the Red Sea, was the day of First Fruits. They were delivered from death and came up out of the waters of the sea in a similar pattern, the same number of days after Passover as Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

Jesus our salvation saves us out of the world, just like He saved the Israelites out of Egypt. The world would like to follow you on your Christian pilgrimage and catch you and destroy you, but Jesus knows how to deliver you from the world just like He delivered them from Egypt. Exodus 15:6 tells us: "Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy." In Acts 2, verses 32 through 36, Peter refers to Jesus Christ being where? The right hand of God the Father. Peter recognized the pattern that was first seen in Exodus repeating itself in the resurrection of Jesus.

After the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they traveled for forty seven days and came to Mount Sinai. There God told them to wash their clothes, clean themselves up, and be ready on the third day following, because at that time He would meet with them. Fifty days after they crossed the Red Sea, fifty Days after First Fruits, God gave them the Torah, the Law. That was the day of Pentecost. That was the day that God made a covenant with His people Israel, and they became one of those two loaves that were waved before the Lord, and then put on the altar. Almost fifteen hundred years later, the other loaf was formed, and waved before the Lord, and that was the church. That was when we got our part in being one of those wave loaves lifted up before the Lord.

When God saved the people out of Egypt, they were glad to be delivered, but most of them didn't know very much about God. After Mount Sinai, that changed. On that Pentecost, God gave them His Laws and instructions, and then they knew a whole lot more about Him. When the Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentecost in Jerusalem, then He opened up their minds and they knew more about Him than they could ever have known before. That is how God deals with us today. When we first get saved, usually we don't know very much. Then we start to read the Bible, and the Holy Spirit makes us to understand the Bible, and the Word of God becomes meaningful to us. Unbelievers don't have that option. Without the Holy Spirit inside you, illuminating the things of God for you, there is very little understanding of the things of God. Both for the Hebrews at Sinai, and for the church, Pentecost was a time when God's Word was magnified and understood.

Even though God uses the same Pentecostal pattern at Sinai and at Jerusalem, similar things happened in very different ways. God was using the same pattern, but He was filling it out very differently.
At both Pentecost's, there had been a time of fifty days elapse. But at Sinai, God wrote his instructions on tablets of stone with His finger. At Jerusalem, He wrote them on hearts by His Holy Spirit.
At Sinai, when Moses came down from the mountain with the commandments of God, , there was sin in the camp, and 3,000 people died. At Jerusalem, there were 3,000 saved and added to the church.
At Sinai, Pentecost and God's covenant salvation was for Israel alone. At Jerusalem, Pentecost was the beginning of God's covenant salvation for everyone through His church, and the Holy Spirit made sure that everyone could hear the Gospel in their own language, so that there would be no mistake.

Part of the pattern that we saw back in Leviticus, the church hasn't always done too well with. The part about it being a holy convocation: there have been times over the centuries when the church has not been very holy, when it has tolerated sin within itself. Messed up the pattern there, didn't it?

And the part about when you reap the harvest of the land, you don't harvest up everything out all the way into the corners, and you don't pick up whatever gets dropped. You leave it for the poor, the widows, and the outsiders. There have been times when the church didn't act that way. It got greedy instead. And spoiled the pattern. It is interesting that those times when the church spoiled God's pattern were called the Dark Ages. That tells me that the pattern is important, because when it is not followed, things get bad for everybody.

Not only is the pattern important, it is easy and uncomplicated, and it is good for everybody the church comes in contact with. Turn to Deuteronomy 16, and verse 10: "And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:"

God is generous with us, are we generous with God? Do we give God a tribute back of all that He has given to us? How do we fit the pattern? When the offering plate comes around, do we just put in a dollar, or two or three dollars, and we would be happier if we didn't have to put in anything? Meanwhile, God has met all our needs, all the time, and we have never had any excuse for going hungry, and our children have never been without food or clothes, or a place to stay. We could give God a tribute of a freewill offering, or we could be stingy and reluctant, and spoil the pattern. God has blessed us. He has kept His part of the pattern, how are we doing on keeping our part?

Verse 11: "And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there."

Let me make this just as plain as I possibly can: God does not want you to come draggin' in here with a long face and a grumpy attitude. Rejoice. Teach your children to rejoice in the things of God, teach them that God is good, and Christianity is fun, and Pentecost is a special time to remember it.

God says that Pentecost is a feast when He wants us to be glad, be merry, be joyful, basically just have a good time. And not only does He want us to have a good time, He wants us to make sure that any stranger that wanders in has a good time too.

When you head out for church on Sunday mornings, are the neighbors glad that you're gone, because maybe now they'll get some peace and quiet from the war that was going on while you got ready? The heathen are supposed to learn that serving God is a time to rejoice, and if your house on Sunday morning sounds like a cut-n'-scrape, you're spoiling the pattern.

If someone comes into the church, and they are obviously unchurched, don't know the Lord, ain't got a clue as to what we're doing, that's OK, make them to know that God can give them something to rejoice about too. God wants His church to make anybody that comes into our midst to be made welcome, to feel at ease, to be at peace, and to have a chance to experience His joy. That's the pattern. And it sounds to me like a good deal, and something that we ought to make a priority, all the time.

And then in verse 12 He says: " And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes." Are you glad you're saved today? There was a time when we were not saved. We were slaves to the world, we were doomed to a lifetime of servitude to sin, and then a miserable death, but God saved us out of that mess, and He thinks we ought to remember it.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We remember and give thanks for those that died in service to our country so that we can enjoy the blessings of freedom. God has done even more than that. He has sent us His Holy Spirit to give us freedom from sin, freedom in Christ, freedom from the world, the flesh and the devil. How neat, and how appropriate that Pentecost and Memorial day fall almost together. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Are you glad you're saved today? Do you understand how very much you have to rejoice about today? Are you glad that you serve a God that knows we get our priorities out of order, so He tells us; "Rejoice before me. Have a feast. Throw a party. I have redeemed you by my Right Hand, My Son Jesus, go and have a happy time and think about it. And if there are any strangers, people that don't even know me, invite them in too."

That's the kind of God we serve. Gracious. Generous. Hospitality full to the top and running over. Are you glad that you serve a God that not only reminds us to rejoice, He even wants us to share our joy with people who don't even know about Him yet? I am.

That is the pattern that God is trying to show us. That is the pattern that He wants us to live out on a daily basis. Go for it. He is worthy of it, and living it out pleases Him. Let's do that right now.