Pentecost
Pentecost Sunday
Today, Sunday, May 27, 2012 is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is a much talked about time in Christendom and may I say controversial. However, Pentecost, in principle is, did not start as a Christian Phenomenon. Pentecost started as a Jewish feast day. It is a feast of the Lord, a holy “convocation”.
Consequently, you will not find the word “Pentecost” in the Old Testament of your Bible but that’s where the principle and the feast started.
The Lord dictates the complexion and tempo of the Jewish lifestyle. He told Moses that three times in a year the Jewish people should hold three feasts to Him, Exodus 23:14.
The three feasts are the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Exodus 23:15, the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering, Exodus 23:16. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is one day after Passover. Passover is on the fourteen and the latter feast on the fifteenth of the First month, Abib.
The Feast of Harvest is when the whole nation of Israel would carry the “first fruits” of all their produce to the priest. That means they would carry the first fruits of any crop they had “sown in the field”, to the priest, Exodus 23:16.
All Israel would carry the first fruits of their “land” into the house of the Lord, to the priest, who shall “wave” it before the Lord on Israel’s behalf, Leviticus 23:10-11;Exodus 23:19; 34:26.
Another name for the Feast of Harvest could be the “The Sheaf of The Wave Offering” or The Presentation of “First Fruits”, Leviticus 23:10-11.
After, the Feast of Harvest, the Lord declared another feast, the Feast of Pentecost.
Fifty Days to the Feast of Pentecost
The Feast of Harvest is important because it marks the start of fifty days, which will end with the Feast of Pentecost
Fifty days after “The Sheaf of The Wave Offering”, on the day of Pentecost, the Jews are commanded by God to “offer a new meat offering to the Lord”, Leviticus 23:16. This is the Feast of Pentecost.
The Lord provides the details for the Feast of Pentecost in Leviticus chapter twenty-three verses seventeen to twenty-one, Leviticus 23:17-21.
Pentecost is also a holy day, “an holy convocation” to the Jews. Pentecost is similar to the Sabbath, because the Jews should not work on that day and they should observe it forever, Leviticus 23:21.
The Feast of Harvest did not end with the Law. In the New Testament, the Church calls it “Pentecost” but the Jews still observe it as the Feast of Harvest, Acts 2:1; 20:16 and 1 Corinthians 16:8. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can end “Pentecost” or the Feast of Harvest.
Pentecost represents the First Advent of the Spirit of Christ
Where the Church is concern, Pentecost represents the first advent of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ to reside in the Church. The Believers, of the First Century Church, on the day of Pentecost, were numbered with Christ, “which have the first fruits of the Spirit” of Christ, Romans 8:23.
Pentecost, for the Church, also represents the first time the Lord God gave His power to humanity, Acts 1:8. And recall His power is in speaking. Believers exercise the power of God by speaking what the Holy Ghost tells them to speak. This is the power of Pentecost.
In closing, Pentecost is the feast fifty days after the Feast of Harvest. Jesus is the first fruits of the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:20. He sent his Spirit to the Church on Pentecost to make us first fruits of the dead after him, 1 Corinthians 1:23, Revelation 14:4.
Pentecost therefore, identifies the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. Jesus sends his Spirit, on Pentecost, fifty days after his resurrection. The Spirit of Pentecost.
Jesus promised to “come again” and live in his disciples. Pentecost identifies the time Christ came back to earth being the first fruits of the dead thus fulfilling his words. Pentecost happens on a Sunday, the day after the seventh Sabbath, Pentecost Sunday.
QUESTION: - Have you ever had the Pentecost Experience
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