1. Joy in serious times
A famous motivational speaker was once asked about his most difficult speech. He answered, "Well, it was when I was asked to speak at a national convention of undertakers. My topic was to explain to them how to look sad during a $20,000 funeral." You see, when there is joy inside, it’s awfully hard to keep it from showing.
2. God gave his people special days like Shabbat and 7 special feasts – most of these represent JOY in the lives and hearts of the people.
3. “Pentecost” (50 Days in Greek); “Shavuot” (Weeks in Hebrew) is one such Feast
4. Acts 2.1-4
5. Question – How much do you know about “Pentecost”? –
a. My early bible study time – I had no idea
b. “Jewish Holiday”
c. “Birthday of the church”
d. NOT a Christian Holiday
I. A Feast of Thanksgiving
In a recent experiment, psychologists asked undergraduates to complete a survey that included a happiness scale and measures of gratitude and thankfulness. Then over the next six weeks, the participants wrote down, once a week, five things for which they were grateful. It had a dramatic effect on their happiness score, and all rated themselves higher in happiness after the six weeks than before. God’s system has built into it reminders of gratitude – it is good for us.
A. Gratitude for the Harvest (Thanksgiving Feast)
1. First Fruits – Barley Harvest; Poor man’s bread
2. Shavuot – Wheat – a better bread; bread of abundance
B. Use of Wheat
1. First Fruits was an illustration of the Resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus)
a. Yeshua (Jesus) – Poor man –
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2.4-8
b. Yeshua is “First Fruits of those who slept” (1 Corinthians 15.20)
c. Approximately 50 days before
2. Shavuot/Pentecost was a GREAT Harvest Time (Book of Ruth)
A city boy visited his cousin who lived on a farm in the country for the first time. The city boy had never seen wheat growing in a field. It was an impressive sight for him, the wheat golden brown and ready for harvesting. He noticed that some of the wheat stood tall in the field, whereas some of it was bent low, touching the ground. The city boy said to his cousin, "I bet the ones standing tall are the best ones, aren’t they?" His cousin smiled knowingly and reached over and plucked the head of one of the tall-standing wheat stalks and one that was bent to the ground. He rubbed each of them and the city boy saw that the tall one was almost empty of seeds. But the one bent to the ground was full of the promise of a rich harvest.
a. Wheat is Central – 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12.23-24
b. Wheat – beaten and refined as flour – Isaiah 52.14
As many were astonished at him — his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men—
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Isaiah 53.1-6
c. Presentation of two leavened loaves of wheat in the temple
1) Waved together before God
2) Different yet the same
3) Jews and Gentiles – together in a Great harvest
II. A Feast of Traditions
[Remember, not all traditions are bad – Washing hands vs. Traditions of Apostles; whatever you bind
It is said that during a service at an old synagogue in Eastern Europe, when the Shema prayer was said, half the congregants stood up and half remained sitting.
The half that was seated started yelling at those standing to sit down, and the ones standing yelled at the ones sitting to stand up.
The rabbi, learned as he was in the Torah and Talmud, didn't know what to do. His congregation suggested that he consult a housebound 98-year-old man, who was one of the original founders of their congregation. The rabbi hoped the elderly man would be able to tell him what the actual tradition was, so he went to the nursing home with a representative of each faction of the congregation.
The one whose followers stood during Shema said to the old man, "Is it our tradition to stand during this prayer?" The old man answered, "No that is not our tradition."
The one whose followers sat asked, "Is it our tradition to sit during Shema?" The old man answered, "No that is not our tradition."
Then the rabbi said to the old man, "The congregants fight all the time, yelling at each other about whether they should sit or stand..."
The old man interrupted, exclaiming, "THAT is our tradition!"
A. Tradition of David’s Death at Shavuot
1. Reason for mentioning him in Kefa’s (Peter’s) Sermon (?) -- 29 “Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Acts 2.29
2. A Comparison to the empty tomb of Yeshua (Jesus)
B. Tradition of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai
1. Sinai was approximately 50 days after Pesach (Passover)
2. Purpose of the Hebrews’ Salvation Exodus 19.3-6
3 And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; 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.”
3. Peoples Response before hearing the Torah (which begins in Exodus 20) Exodus 19.7-9
7 So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. 8 And all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD. 9 And the LORD said to Moses. “Lo, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”
4. Attitudes toward Torah – Drudgery or Delight?
a. It is a Loving Father’s Instructions (“Torah”)
b. It is Spiritual – Romans 7.14
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.
c. It is a Treasure – Psalm 119.97
Oh, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
d. It is a Gift of the HS – Exodus 31.18 (Finger of God)
e. It is Guidance for a Redeemed People – 1 Corinthians 10.11
Now these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come.
III. A Feast of Triumph – God’s Accomplishment/Our Applications (Acts 2.1-4)
During WWII, soldiers were often given Bibles to take into battle. One veteran displayed his with a German bullet that had punctured it and traveled halfway through until it stopped in Psalm 91. What does Psalm 91:11 say? “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” He believed it was no coincidence that he carried that bible that day.
A. Timing was no Coincidence
1. 50 Days after DBR of Yeshua (Jesus)
2. Presence of HS (as Joel 2 mentions)
B. Torah/Instruction was no Coincidence
1. New Covenant –
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31.31-34
2. Blood of Yeshua (Jesus) – Matthew 26.28
C. Testimony was no Coincidence
1. Original Shavuot – “We will do and we will hear”
2. A Question for Obedience Acts 2.37
3. 3000 obey vs. 3000 who died in the original (Exodus 32.28)
D. Trappings were no Coincidence
1. Sinai – Trumpet; Thunder (voices); Languages; Wind; Fire
2. Jerusalem – Trumpet started the Feast; Wind; Fire; Languages (Voices/Thunder)
3. God in Smoke; Fire; Thunder (Voices; Languages)
a. Ezekiel’s Vision – Ezekiel 18-20 (read at Shavuot) – Rushing Wind (Spirit); Fire; Water
b. Habakkuk in the Temple – Fire (presence); Thunder (Voice) Wind (HS)
1. Celebration of this feast was a key to Jewish people – finished Pesach – it is not enough to be saved; we are saved to do something – serve God.
2. Becomes a key for us in the same way
a. Our salvation is only the beginning – it is not an end in itself
b. We need instruction (Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24.7)
c. We enjoy the presence of God (Emanuel)
3. We become living temples for the living God
a. On our own we are unworthy
b. The blood of Yeshua makes us worthy to receive the gifts from God
