Fifty Days to Pentecost

Pastor Sam Chess

Grace Emmanuel Church

(The Arrival of Pentecost)

With summer approaching the temperature was rising and the days were dry and warm. By late May the sky was blue day after day, the spring rains had left everything perfectly in bloom…it was the most perfect time for a Feast….and this was one that everybody came to…they had no choice…God had ordered everybody to come from whatever nation they lived in, leave their homes and their jobs, bring their families and servants and the first fruits of their wheat harvest and spend a glorious few days celebrating the bountiful outpouring of God into their lives…. Somewhat like our Thanksgiving, except instead of just being thankful and receiving God’s bounty into their bellies, they actually brought the first fruits of God’s blessing back to him and gave it as an offering of love and obedience.

So the Feast of Weeks had ended… (7 weeks of seven days)

The Day of Shavot (weeks) had arrived (Greek-Pentecost-fifty)

I. The Arrival of Pentecost

Everybody, and I mean everybody, is gathered at the temple for the Temple “shakharit”

(morning) service and it concludes just as it has for centuries. There is the solitary voice reading ritual verses from Ezekiel and Habakkuk…there is the thunder of worshippers praying in unison (several hundred thousand, perhaps millions, at the same time) then comes the sharp blast of the silver trumpets. Everyone is totally focused…people from the surrounding Middle East, and Northern Africa, and Europe, and Asia are all in rapt attention as the peals from the silver trumpets echo back from the surrounding hills.

…..In the stillness they hear a sound, It sounds like wind…it gets stronger, and stronger, yet when the people looked to the sky there were no clouds, there never are this time of year. The worshippers stood looking at the sky confused about what the were hearing.

(Acts 2:1-2) When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. (NIV)

I’ve always assumed that only the people sitting in the house heard the sound….there is absolutely nothing in the Bible to suggest that that is true…if fact, the text says that the sound came…from heaven. If it came from heaven and ended up in the house it is almost certain that everyone gathered around the temple a few hundred feet to the east heard it too. The sound seemed to become more focused and centered itself on the west side of town gathering like a reverse megaphone into the second floor of a large stone house.

I imagine several hundred people ran through the outer court to the southwest gate, past the Temple guards, and onto the towering steps leading down to the city. From their vantage point they could see what looked like swirling bits of fire that seemed to cyclone around one house in particular and finally it went inside the open windows.

Just like we tend to do when we see a house on fire or some other spectacular event…I can imagine the streets, filled with people from every possible end of the earth, trying to get closer and closer to see what was happening. Some undoubtedly came right up to the first floor door on the house and beat on the door to see who was in the house and what the effect of this “never before seen happening” was having on them. They would have probably beat the door in and run up the stairs…but at that moment the door opened from the inside and men, several of them, came pouring out into the streets and they began to talk and explained what was going on. What they said turned the whole city on it’s ear, even more than the death of the Messiah 7 weeks earlier.

II. The Arrangements for Pentecost

(Leviticus 23:15-21) "'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two- tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of first- fruits to the LORD. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams…. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (NIV)

The reason for Pentecost is very specific… it was designated as a time for thanksgiving for the early harvest. The celebration of God’s faithfulness in providing the beginning of the wheat harvest was considered part of an act of faith on their part that God would continue to bless them until the entire fall harvest was brought in.

Lets call this…

Thanks for present provision offered as faith for future provision.

Looking back now we realize that the entire feast was set up by God to prepare the minds of the Israelites for the coming fulfillment. Just like Jesus fulfilled the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First-fruits so the activities of Pentecost were to prepare the Jewish mind for what was coming.

The entire nation of Israel had, for a long time, been expecting an unusual pouring out of God’s presence. They had no idea how to relate it to the Messiah’s coming and most of them had not accepted the Messiah when he did come, but it is fair to say they were poised expecting something.

Ezekiel had promised them:

(Ezekiel 39:28-29) ….Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD." (NIV)

The prophet Joel was even more specific:

(Joel 2:25-29) 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. 'And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (NIV)

When Jesus, in his final sermon to the disciples, talked to them about the coming of God’s Spirit, we raise out eyebrows at such a novel idea…. They were already more programmed to the possibility.

Jesus said to the disciples:

(John 14:16-26) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ….."All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (NIV)

So just before Jesus ascended back to heaven he said to his disciples:

(Luke 24:48-51) You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. (NIV)

So the disciples had a pretty good idea what was coming, and they knew pretty well when God’s promised Spirit was going to show up. If the first three feasts of the year had been directly fulfilled by Jesus…it was a fairly sure guess that the next fulfillment was going to come exactly on the day of the next feast, the feast of Pentecost! They waited exactly 10 days. When the sun started to rise on Pentecost Sunday they knew D-day had arrived. The ceremony east of them at the temple gate was underway at first light. They heard the reading of scripture, the singing, the trumpets:

Here’s a fascinating point: The Israelites had read the same passages since God instituted the Feast of Pentecost…always the same ones. They always read from Ezekiel and they always read from Habbakuk…same scripture every year for 1500 years. They had nothing to link these passages to except that this was what they had always done.

Listen to what they were reading;

(Ezekiel 1:4) I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north-- an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, (NIV)

(Ezekiel 3:12) Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound-- May the glory of the LORD be praised in his dwelling place!-- (NIV)

(Habakkuk 3:3-5) …. His (God’s) glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. Plague went before him; pestilence followed his steps. (NIV)

This fascinates me: Here they are reading this scripture, just like they had so many times and far up in the sky there is a rumbling sound. “Did you hear that noise”? The rumbling grows in intensity, apparently sounding much like and F-5 tornado. It is not impossible that, in addition to the huge sound there was huge fireworks…. it may have looked very much like Ezekiel vision…the very passage they were reading when it all went down!

(Ezekiel 1:4) I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north-- an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal….

We sometimes talk in worship planning about how the worship time in a service should prepare the people, set the stage, for the preaching of Word….. Peter, unknown to him, is huddled in the upper room getting ready to preach the sermon of his lifetime. He’s not a preacher, he has no notes, he’s never preached before…but God is getting the crowd outside ready for the sermon. In this case, he’s drawing attention to the coming preaching of the Word with an F-20 tornado, with a light show like no one had or has ever seen which all centers on a little upper room on the west side of town, actually comes down from heaven and enters the second floor room.

Before we get to Peter’s sermon, let me pause here and share my fascination with the awesomeness of God’s plan.

1) It was at the exact time of the Passover sacrifice that Jesus was sacrificed as the final lamb for the sins of the whole world.

2) It was, apparently, at the exact moment, the priests were waving the offering of first fruits that Jesus pushed away the two ton rock, walked out of the tomb, past comatose guards, and became the first-fruits of all of us who would defeat death and rise to live eternal life.

Now: 3) It is at the exact moment the scripture are being read, the silver trumpets are sounding and the two loaves of harvest bread are being waved, that the Harvester himself descends from heaven amid a whirlwind and flashing lights and takes up His residence in the disciples and eventually all believers for all time.

III. The Amazing Results of Pentecost

Now let me take you over to the upper room. Jesus had actually given them specific insight into what the coming of the Holy Sprit would do for them:

(Acts 1:8) 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." (NIV)

(Acts 2:1-8) When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? (NIV)

Let me deal with an obvious glaring issue here. The entire Charismatic movement has grown out of this speaking in tongues issue, Several of you come from Charismatic churches. In fact one branch, the original branch of the charismatic movement call themselves, “Pentecostals” after the events that happened this day. I have no intention of dealing with the issue of speaking in unknown tongues in this sermon…what I do want to point out is that the text is very clear about what was going on that day.

Very specifically that day…the disciples came boiling out of that upper room and began to speak to all those people who were massing at the door to find out what in the world was going on inside. They began to speak to people “from every nation under heaven” and all the people heard everything that was said in their own language, and even in their own dialect. The disciples were Galileans, the hicks of that society….like we might make fun of the unschooled man from the Kentucky mountains.. that’s how people felt about the Galileans. But here they are… speaking, not only, with intelligence and power but:

In every language and dialect on earth with unflawed grammar, and without an accent.

God’s “Ruach HaKodesh” (Holy Breath) had fallen on them!

The same breath that gave life to Adam and all who come out of him, now breath spritual life inside of man and for all who would follow him!

Some accused them of being drunk:

Peter start talking….(Acts 2:14-17) 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. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "'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. (NIV)

This is what we as Jews have been waiting on for centuries. D-Day has arrived! All that we have been waiting for, the very reason for which we were established as a nation, the reason for the teaching of all the Law and the Prophets and the Writings of the Old Covenant has arrived. This is the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah where the Law of God would no longer be written on tablets of stone but would be written on our hearts.

(Acts 2:22-24) "Men 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. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 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. (NIV)

(Acts 2:32-33) God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 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. (NIV)

Conclusion:

After that sermon 3000 people came to Christ! That was the beginning of the harvest. I’m sure, in the next few hours, Peter described to them why the Holy spirit had arrive exactly on the Day of Pentecost. That was the day when they were bringing the first-fruits of their summer harvest as an expression of faith that the balance of the harvest would be brought safely in. It was the waving of the loaves that provided the impetus that carried them through the summer of harvest and in September, at the Feast of Trumpets the Trumpets blast would signal that the harvest time had come to an end….(Sound Familiar?)

I’m sure Peter explained: Jesus said: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses“… the Holy Spirit is the Power of Pentecost, He is the engine, the Power Plant of the emerging Church….

…there will be a summer harvest lasting until the blast of the trumpet signals it’s end. Until then these 3000 converts on the day of Pentecost are just the beginning of the Harvest…there will be more, many more…

Go, Go and reap the harvest, the Holy Spirit will be your source of power!