We’re going to have a quiz today. I’m gonna give you a famous quote and ask if you think it is in Scripture:
1. "To the victor go the spoils." (False—It’s a quote from "Life of Jackson" by William Learned Marcy)
2. "Can a leopard change his spots?" (True—in Jeremiah 13:23 God says evil people can’t do good stuff)
3. "A drop in the bucket." (True – God spoke of the nations as being a “drop in the bucket” Isaiah 40:15)
4. “Holier Than Thou” (True—God said He was holier than you & I in Isaiah 65:5.)
5. "Money is the root of all evil." (Partial credit – I Timothy 6:10 says it’s the LOVE of money)
6. "The serpent tempted Eve to eat the apple." ( Partial credit – Satan did tempt Eve of the tree of knowledge of good and evil… but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t an apple).
7. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (True – Abraham Lincoln said it quoting Jesus from Mark 3:25)
8. "Robbing Peter to pay Paul." (False – this is from a work by John Wycliffe – who translated the Bible into English)
9. "No man is an island." (False – from a poem a 15th century poem by John Donne)
10. "No rest for the wicked." (True – God declared there’d be no rest for the wicked - Isaiah 48:22)
There are a lot of phrases you might not have realized were in the Bible: "In the twinkling of an eye" (I Cor. 15:52); "Den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13); "Keep the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7); "Old wives' tale" (1 Tim. 4:7); "Apple of his eye" (Deut. 32:10); “It is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35); and “The blind leading the blind." (Luke 6:39).
It’s amazing how many Bible phrases show up in our culture that most people don’t realize come from Scripture. And that’s cool. But what’s even cooler are little mysteries God puts in Scripture (for us to find). Kind of like the mystery of the Feast Of Weeks.
Have you ever heard of the Feast of Weeks? (Many indicated they hadn’t) Well, that’s odd. The feast was one of only 3 major festivals that God commanded Israel to observe. It was very important to Old Testament worship.
Now, just a few facts about this Feast Of Weeks - the Feast of Weeks started 50 days after Passover, and on the 2nd day of the feast, worshippers were to bring in bundles of new wheat to present to God at the temple as the first-fruits of the harvest. And oh, by the way, this feast would be better known to us by the name “The Feast Of Pentecost.” Pentecost was the name that the New Testament gave to this Old Testament festival. Same festival… just 2 different names.
Pentecost meant “50”, because Pentecost took place 50 days after Passover. And this is where the “mystery” comes in. You see - on that day we think of as Pentecost (in the book of Acts) - THAT Pentecost was 50 days after Jesus was crucified (at Passover). And on THAT Pentecost Peter stood before a huge crowd and he preached a powerful sermon about Jesus being the Messiah God had sent, and about His being crucified and rising from the dead.
And then Peter said “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this (the crowd was) cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” and Peter said to them, “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.” Acts 2:36-38
THAT WAS THE PENTECOST WE REMEMBER
Now, there’s a couple things I want you to remember about this mystery of the feast of Pentecost – of the Feast of Weeks: 1) Pentecost took place 50 days after Passover and 2) the major focus of the Feast was the celebration of the 1st fruits of the harvest.
So let’s explore this mystery together: The last major reference to the Pentecost is spoken about in Acts where ABOUT 3000 were baptized into Christ. And that was the last major time we’re told about Pentecost. But… if there was a LAST Pentecost in the Bible… when was the first one?
Well, remember, Pentecost took place 50 days after Passover. So if we want to know when the Pentecost took place… we have to ask when was the first Passover? So, when was the first Passover? That’s right it was held the last night that Israel was in captivity in Egypt. On that Passover, God commanded the Israelites to gather with their families at their homes. They were to slaughter a perfect lamb and take the blood from that lamb and paint it on the doorposts and lentils of their homes. And God promised that when He saw the blood of that perfect lamb on the frames of their doors, He would PASS OVER their homes and they would escape the plague of death. That’s why it’s called “Passover” because God passed over the homes of those with the blood of the perfect lamb.
So, that was the first Passover - just before they left Egypt. If that’s true, where was Israel 50 days later? Believe it or not, they were at Mt. Sinai where they were about to receive the Law from God (Exodus. 19:1).
Now, do you think that might have been a COINCIDENCE? Do you think that God just HAPPENED to have brought Israel to the Mountain, on a day that just happened to be Pentecost? I don’t think so! I don’t think God does anything without a purpose.
Someone did a comparison between the 2 “Pentecosts” (the one Mt. Sinai & Mt. Zion) and concluded: 1) The 1st Pentecost marked the birth of the Israelite nation; the last Pentecost marked the birth of Christianity. (they were the 1st fruits); 2) Exodus 19:18 tells us “Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in FIRE” that everyone could see. And in Acts 2:3 we’re told that the crowds “saw what seemed to be tongues of FIRE that separated and came to rest on each of them.” 3) And both events involved God’s people receiving a gift – Israel received the Law at Mt. Sinai, while those who became Christians received the Spirit at Mt. Zion.
Now, that’s worth the price of admission!
But, as intriguing as all that is… why should that matter to us? Why should we care? Well 1st, it matters because, it shows us how much God cares about YOU. He cared about your salvation and He was so invested in YOU that He spent time even in small details like this.
ILLUS: God is like the father who REMEMBERS to write his child into his will. Now, for the longest time, I haven’t written a will. I just didn’t figure I’d ever die… Jesus was going to show up first. When I finally figured out God might not be on the same timetable as I was, I’ve been taking serious steps toward having a will. But a lot of folks don’t bother with wills. Maybe they think they’ll live forever; Maybe it’s because they don’t care; and maybe they believe their kids don’t deserve an inheritance - but the loving and caring father takes care of the details because His children matter to him.
That’s what God did with Pentecost – He spent time on the smallest details because your salvation meant that much to Him.
Secondly, this story about Pentecost is important because it shows the intricacy of Scripture. The Bible is so interwoven that there’s no chance that it’s the result of human authorship. Only a mighty and caring God could tie the story line together that would span a period of 100s of years - starting way back in the days of Moses and climaxing in the days following Christ’s resurrection.
My point is this - you can trust your Bible because it’s a far more complicated book than mere mortal men could create. As Paul wrote: “All Scripture is God-breathed” 2 Timothy 3:16
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
And this next point is so impressive, that it was why I decided to preach this sermon.
When Israel was at Mt. Sinai, God came down on the Mountain. And there was lighting and thunder and smoke, and God spoke the 10 commandments from the Mountaintop. And the first command was this…
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "You shall have no other gods before me. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God” Exodus 20:2-5a (I spoke this with as booming and powerful voice as I could).
And the Bible tells us that the people trembled at His voice. They told Moses "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die." Exodus 20:19
So, Moses went up on the Mountain to receive the 10 Commandments and he was gone for 40 days… more than month. And the people began to get nervous. They had never been a calm people since they’d left Egypt, but at least they could see who was leading them. Now, Moses was gone and they weren’t sure he was coming back.
Exodus 32:1 tells us “When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ‘Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” So Aaron told the people to bring their earrings of gold and he melted them down and took a tool and fashioned a golden calf for the people. And the next day they had a festival to worship that calf.
(WAIT… DIDN’T GOD TELL THEM NOT TO DO THAT???)
“So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” (Exodus 32:6) They had themselves a party!!!
And they partied and partied and partied... at least until Moses showed up. By that time God was mad, Moses was mad, and Moses took the stone tablets of the law that God had given him and threw them to the ground broke them in pieces. Then Moses confronted his brother Aaron “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
Aaron’s answer is classic: “Do not be angry, my lord. You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us….’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire (PAUSE) and out came this calf!” Exodus 32:24
Do you believe that? Well, neither did Moses. And the Bible tells us that Moses “saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control” and decided something drastic needed to be done to pull the nation back from the brink of destruction… and so he cried “He that is on the Lord’s side, come stand beside me” and the whole tribe of Levi showed. Then Moses said “strap on your swords boys, because we’re going to go clean house” (a very loose translation of Exodus 32:26-27)
By the time they’d finished their work, a vast number of Israelites lay dead on the ground. Do you know how many people died that day - AFTER that first Pentecost? Exodus 32:28 says “… about three thousand of the people died that day.”
Whoa! About 3000 died after the first Pentecost… and do you remember how many people were SAVED at the LAST Pentecost? That’s right - ABOUT 3000!!!
The first time I heard this, a chill went up and down my spine. But then the man who was teaching about it quoted 2 Corinthians 3:6 “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant— not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter (the Law) kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
The FIRST Pentecost brought the Law, and the law brought death, because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, and Romans 6:23 tells us “the wages of sin is death…”! We’ve all sinned and we deserve death. But that’s why Jesus came and died on the cross for us. That’s why Romans 6:23 doesn’t stop by saying “The wages of sin is death” – it finishes by saying “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
CLOSE: One person observed that any religion can come up with a way that ‘nice’ people can make it to heaven. But only Christianity is based on the truth that Jesus can save even the worst of us. Jesus came so that people who deserved to die could receive a new life.
ILLUS: One of the worst kinds of people in our society are the White Supremacists. These are people who hate others simply because those other folk are not WHITE like they are. About 11 years ago, a man named Chris Simpson led a white pride march. He was a garbage man and former Marine who had the words “PURE HATE” tattooed across his knuckles. Why was he such an angry man? Well, after the loss of his 1st child, Simpson he was filled with hatred and anger that the white pride movement was tailor made to give him a place to direct his anger and frustration—towards people of other races.
But one night, his family and he were invited to a church, where they watched the movie “Courageous” with friends. Then he began attending church … and a month later he was baptized into Christ. He became a changed man. He said “I forgave all those who wronged me and asked forgiveness from those that I have wronged.” Simpson simply left his hate behind. He even had some tattoos removed -- starting with the word HATE. All because Jesus could redeem a lost man deserving of death.
A poet once wrote of Jesus: “He paid a debt He did not owe; I owed a debt I could not pay. I needed someone to wash my sins away. and now I sing a brand new song; Amazing Grace!’ Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”
That’s the Mystery of Pentecost. In the story of Pentecost you read the whole message of Scripture: the law given at the first Pentecost decreed we all deserved to die. But the Spirit given at the last Pentecost declared that all who deserved death were offered life through Jesus Christ.
INVITATION
