PENTECOST

 

What is the celebration of Pentecost from the Old Testament and the New Testament?

 

There are many different festivals celebrated in the Old Testament. In the spring the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were technically two separate feasts, but were merged together since one followed immediately after the other. This feast celebrated Israel’s exodus from Egypt. A third celebration for the first fruits was also held after the early barley crop of the spring season was harvested. These three festivals were at the March-April time of year and all merged together into a big celebration.

From Leviticus 23:15-17 we read:

¹⁵ " 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. ¹⁶ Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. ¹⁷ From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.

 

The celebration described in the Leviticus passage that followed the three springtime feasts was called Pentecost. The word Pentecost means 50. This was also called the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot. Pentecost celebrated fifty days (or seven weeks) after the wave offering of the first fruits. The growing season ended seven weeks after the barley crop was collected with the harvest of the wheat crop. Although Pentecost was a time of thanksgiving for the harvest, it was also commemorated as the time of when God gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Pentecost marked Israel’s birth as a free nation. The law of God (the 10 Commandments) was written upon stone tablets and given to the people as a covenant between God and His chosen people.

 

The Old Testament has many lessons for us. It speaks in symbolic ways pointing to Jesus Christ and the events we read about in the New Testament. One of the reasons we study the Old Testament with the New Testament is because it increases our faith when we see what God spoke of in all these authors and how those things came to pass in the New Testament hundreds of years later under completely different authors. The celebration of Pentecost is one of those symbolic events.

Philippians 3:12ff NLT Paul says, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day what I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.”   

Matthew 11:25ff TNIV ²⁵ At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.”

2Corinthians 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Although the Bible teaches us that we are held accountable for walking in the truth that has been revealed to us and we are expected to keep coming to Jesus and growing from glory to glory in Him, we are also children. Whatever degree of glory any of us are walking in, God expects us to walk in obedience to the truth we understand and to keep coming. Let’s go back to what Paul said in Philippians 3. “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day what I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.”

Every person that belongs to Jesus is a child of God that God wants to see grow. We are all at a different degrees of glory in our growth in Christ, just as children in a family are of different ages and maturity. We are siblings, and God the Father loves us equally, just as parents should love all their children.

Matthew 18:1-4 ¹ At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" ² He called a little child, whom he placed among them. ³ And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes a humble place—becoming like this child—is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Our childlike state is not meant to be that of being immature, but being humble before God. We are expected to come to God our Father as a loving, trusting child comes to a loving, trustworthy father. No matter who we are, or how old we are, or how many academic degrees we have, we are a child in the sight of our God. The best and brightest of us are still children, and we must come to God with a humble and teachable attitude, willing to obey our Father.

God doesn’t want just “some” of His children to know Him and have an intimate relationship with Him. He wants “all” to know Him and have an intimate relationship with Him.

Hebrew 12: 11 “No longer will they teach their neighbors, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”

If things are going as they should, each child in a family knows their parent. It’s a different kind of knowing according to age, circumstance and maturity, but they know their parent. God wants all His children to personally know Him, not just designated prophets.

Now let’s go see what happened in Acts Chapter 1 and 2.

From Acts 1:3-11 we read: ³ After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. ⁶ So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" ⁷ He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Jesus was saying here -don’t worry about when I’m going to come restore the kingdom to Israel. That timing is up to the Father. But you will have the power to live in victory as my witnesses while you’re waiting. That power is the Holy Spirit.

We just read that John baptized with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. When we are baptized with water, it means we are fully wet. That’s why many baptism services are held by rivers or lakes and why some churches have baptismal tanks. That’s what happened when John the Baptist was baptizing people with water. He was getting them fully wet by submerging them in the river. That baptism is a symbol of repentance and is now also a symbol of our dying to self and being raised to new life in Christ.

Let’s read Acts 2 and see what happened. The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

    ¹ When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. ⁵ Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷ Utterly amazed, they asked: "Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" ¹³ Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

Peter Addresses the Crowd

    ¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

    ¹⁷ " 'In the last days, God says,
       I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
       Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
       your young men will see visions,
       your old men will dream dreams.

    ¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
       and they will prophesy.

    ¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heaven above
       and signs on the earth below,
       blood and fire and billows of smoke.

    ²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness
       and the moon to blood
       before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

    ²¹ And everyone who calls
       on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

    ²² "People of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. …

³² God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. ³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

    ³⁸ Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—…”

The gift of salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit are for all. The Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity. Trinity is three. Although God is one God, somehow, beyond our complete understanding of how it happens, this one God has three ways He makes Himself known; God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. All are God. They aren’t like three people working really well together. They are one God. Here’s what I want you to see. It is God the Holy Spirit that God the Father sent to us at Pentecost. In fact Jesus said that Holy Spirit couldn’t come unless He went home to God the Father first. Jesus was in human form during His ministry on earth and could only be in one place at one time. Even though He was God, he’d restricted Himself in certain ways in order to take on human form. When he was taken back to sit at the right hand of God the Father, Father God then sent Holy Spirit to the earth.

^{John 16:12 ff 12} "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you."

Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father in Heaven right now. The Bible teaches us that The Father has given all things to Jesus and the Father has given the Holy Spirit to make known to all of us, all the things that are of Jesus. Holy Spirit is here to give us power and reveal Jesus to us.

So, if water baptism is becoming fully wet, what does being baptized with the Holy Spirit look like? How are we fully wet in the Holy Spirit? How are we submerged in this situation?

John 7:37 ff ³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the Festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." ³⁹ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

1 Corinthians 12:12ff
¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

When we’re fully wet in the Holy Spirit, we look like the body of Christ working together. We have rivers of the living water of God flowing through us to each other and to those around us. We move at the direction of the Holy Spirit and we let God use us in whatever way He chooses. We see individuals and a group of people who have received power to BE WITNESSES of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean by just what comes out of our mouths, but what our lives look like. We are salt and light on this earth, we are Ambassadors of Christ on this earth. People see the good fruit that’s being grown in and through our lives. They can pick the fruit of our lives and be ministered to. They taste the fruit of God through us and they say “taste and see that the Lord is good” and they glorify our Father who is in heaven. Does this description sound like all the Christians and churches we know?

Nevertheless, that is what Pentecost is and that is what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is supposed to looks like. In some Christian circles, there is much emphasis on the manifestation of tongues being exclusively what the Baptism of the Holy Spirit looks like, but it’s so much more than that. And we shouldn’t play either-or-games with the things of God. It’s not tongues or prophecy, it’s not miracles or witnessing, it’s not the eye over the ear or the mouth over the hand, it’s not the gift of knowledge over the gift of helps….it’s what God wants to manifest of His Spirit in any given individual or group of people, at any given time, at HIS pleasure and purpose. It’s everything together in the combination GOD wants it, as He forms the Body of Christ.

God gave the celebration from Passover to Pentecost as a way of foreshadowing and symbolizing that which was to come in the New Testament. By timing Christ’s sacrifice on Passover and sending the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, He was making His plan to people more easily recognizable and understandable.

 

The Old Testament Pentecost celebration was the commemoration of the 10 commandments written on tablets of stone, and the birth of the nation of Israel as a covenant people of God, to the celebration of the harvest at the end of the growing season. This Old Testament celebration was a symbol, a foreshadowing of the New Testament Pentecost which is the celebration of Holy Spirit baptizing believers and writing the law of God upon their hearts, and birthing a people of God He calls His church, and bringing in the harvest of souls at the end of the age. The God who once spoke through specifically designated people in the Old Testament, now pours out on all flesh, sons and daughters, so all may know the Lord.

 

For Christians the celebration of Pentecost is a celebration of hope. We are never alone. By the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, because of Jesus Christ, we are never alone. If we will come to Jesus and believe on Him as the Scripture says, we can trust that God is working in us and through us so that we can walk in the power of Pentecost. The test of Pentecost is not so much what happened in the upper room that day, as it is what happened when they went out on the streets of Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

 

Yes we need to wait on God and have the upper room experiences with Him. But those experiences happen in our lives so we can take our witness for Christ and bear the fruit of God out there…. in our jobs, our friendships, our recreation times and any other time that brings us into contact with a lost world that has no hope. We are the Ambassadors of Christ, and Pentecost represents the power available to each of us to be that Ambassador witness for Christ in a world that does not know Him.