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SOUNDING OUT:
Celebrating Pentecost
Acts 2 records the events for which
God had been waiting since before the foundation of the
world. On the Day on Pentecost in 28 A.D. the Giver, God,
gave His gift, holy spirit. For the first time in the
history of the world, men and women could be born-again
of incorruptible seed, and receive a new divine nature.
Acts 2:1:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were
all with one accord in one place.
Pentecost came every year, but on June
20th 28 A.D. it was fully come. This was the Pentecost
to which all the other celebrations pointed. Pentecost,
the second of the great Jewish national festivals, was
observed on the 50th day after Passover. Seven weeks were
counted from Passover and therefore it was known in the
Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks. From the record in
II Chronicles 8:12,13, we see that in Solomon's day the
children of Israel were familiar with it, and the requirements
of the three great festivals were well understood.
The festival and its ritual were minutely
described in the Law.
Exodus 34:18a,22,23:
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep..
And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits
of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the
year's end.
Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear
before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
Passover celebrated the barley harvest.
The Feast of Weeks celebrated the wheat harvest, and the
Feast of Ingathering celebrated the final harvest of all
crops at the end of the year. Every male in Israel was
required to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary on
these three national feasts.
Leviticus 23:15,16:
And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the
sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the
wave offering; [that was the last day of the seven day
Passover festival] seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall
ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat
offering unto the LORD.
Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, therefore
fell on the 50th day after this occurrence. The day was
observed as a Sabbath day, all labor was suspended, and
the people appeared before Yahweh to express their gratitude.
Leviticus 23:17,21:
Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves
of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they
shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits
unto the LORD.
And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may
be a holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile
work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all
your dwellings throughout your generations.
The central feature of the day was the
presentation of two loaves of leavened, salted bread unto
the Lord. The size of each loaf was fixed by law. It must
contain the tenth of an ephah, about three quarts and
a half, of the finest wheat flour of the new harvest.
It was a festival of good cheer, a day of joy. Free-will
offerings were to be made to the Lord. It was also to
be marked by a liberality toward the Levite, the stranger,
the orphans, and widows.
Deuteronomy 16:10,11:
And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD
thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine
hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according
as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:
And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou,
and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and
thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates,
and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow,
that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy
God hath chosen to place his name there.
When God poured out His spirit on this
wonderful occasion, He did it at this festival of celebration
in which every male was to be in attendance. That's why
verse 5 says "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven."
They had come in for this grand festival, little did they
know what they would have to celebrate and rejoice about.
Acts 2:2:
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind, [Young's literal translation says,
"a sound as of a bearing violent breath."]
and it filled all the house [the temple] where they
were sitting.
"Bearing," means "the
act or power of producing offspring." Other renderings
are "as of a heavy breathing" or "as the
first breath of a new-born." I wouldn't go as far
as to call it "labor breathing" although there
was a new-birth going on here. There was no coach there
as far I as know, directing the breathing." The twelve
were all breathing, in unison. They were into it. Jesus
had already taught them how they were to receive.
John 20:22:
And when he had said this, he breathed [past tense]
on them, and saith [present tense] unto them, Receive
ye [This is a command to do in the future. Since it
was an aorist imperative, it would happen at a certain
point in time and they were to undertake it immediately
once it became available.] the Holy Ghost:
We will see from reading Acts 2 that
the gift of holy spirit was not yet given. What then was
Jesus doing here? He was preparing them for the day of
Pentecost when they would have a new creation born within
them and teaching them how to receive and manifest it.
Later on the day of the ascension, which was only ten
days before Pentecost, Jesus told them they had to wait
to receive.
Acts 1:4,5:
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait
for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have
heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
It was important that they be in Jerusalem
until it became available. God wanted it done where His
people would be celebrating and offering the firstfruits.
They were to be the firstfruits of this new administration,
and God wanted to display them as the firstfruits in front
of everyone who would be gathered at the temple. God wanted
to bring His promise to fulfillment before His people
gathered to celebrate it. However, the great celebration
on Pentecost June 20th, 28 A.D. was not to be the firstfruits
of the wheat harvest, but rather the firstfruits of holy
spirit, His unspeakable gift.
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