For the past weeks we have walked with Jesus as He conformed to the Jewish festival cycle. This plan was instituted long ago, and given to man in the books of Moses. The Jewish festival cycle was a foreshadowing of the fulfillment in Christ. Jesus fulfilled the first four feasts at His first Advent—He is our Passover; He is our Unleavened Bread; He is our Firstfruits (1 Cor. 15: 22-23) and fifty days later His Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost. Pentecost played an important role for the Jews and for the Church—of Law and Grace. The rabbis say that the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai on Pentecost. In Hebrew, Pentecost is called “Shavout,” which means “weeks.” In the Jewish calendar, the Feast of Weeks is the festival of the harvest, which is always a metaphor of souls saved and brought into the household of God. (Read Deut. 16: 9-10) As first given in Leviticus, it is seen as the culmination of seven weeks, plus one day…the day after the Sabbath which equals 50 days—Pentecost—the Greek word for “fifty.”
When most Christians think of Pentecost, we don’t think of Jewish holidays at all but the account in Acts of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. However, Jesus connects Law and Grace as He said: 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Mt. 5: 17-18) The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost as God anointed certain individuals to accomplish His purposes but the Spirit of Jesus did not permanently abide in them. This is made clear by David’s prayer in Psalm 51: 11 when he had sinned greatly concerning Bathsheba: “ “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” The enduement of power from on high (Luke 24:49) that Jesus promised His disciples was fulfilled in Acts 2: 1-6. They were all in one place and in one accord and they were filled with the Holy Spirit which was an amazing display of that power! By the Resurrection and Ascension power of Jesus, by the sent-down Holy Spirit, we can be lifted into a relationship with the Father that we are at one with the perfect sovereign will of God by our free choice even as Jesus was. Every born-again believer is sealed as God’s forever child and in that wonderful position, we can pray to God in Jesus’ Name, in His nature, which is gifted to us by the Holy Spirit!
This manifestation was to the Jews who did not comprehend what was happening as the great mystery of the Church Age had not been revealed to them. In Acts 2: 14- 36 we have the account of Peter’s sermon declaring this new revelation. He first connected a known truth with a new truth as he quoted the words of the prophet Joel in 2: 28-32: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon ALL FLESH; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke; The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come; And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Then in verses 22-36 he precedes to give an exposition of Jesus as the risen and exalted Lord and Christ foretold by David (Ps. 16: 8-11). That was quite a shock to the Jews that God’s Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh—not just Israel and upon daughters and handmaidens! The prophet Joel predicted in 1:4 that the Jews would be scattered from their land to suffer among the nations, but in 2: 23-25 he told of a time of restoration and linked it to the former and latter rains—a time of restoration from the years the locust had eaten.
There are prophecies for both Israel and the Church in Pentecost—an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The “early rain” came at Pentecost to give power to the Church to the witness of the gospel—to qualify the saints to proclaim the truth and power to lead sinners to God. Christ came as God to make know the Father, and the Spirit came as God to make known the Son in us. This good news is for everyone—both Jew and Gentile that whosoever will may come. Two wave-loaves were presented on Pentecost by the priest typifying the Church made up of both Jew and Gentile and contained leaven a symbol of sin for in the Church there is still evil. Someday, the Holy Spirit will be poured out again in Jerusalem when Israel will recognize Jesus as Messiah and declare “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” (Ps 118: 27) It should be a fulfillment of the promise of a “latter rain” ushering in the 1000 year reign of Christ. God promises to restore the earth to the state of glory that He originally intended. At some future time known only to Him, the story will become a reality. However, Joel’s prophecy from the Lord spoke of signs in the heavens to watch for—eclipses of the sun—blood moons and God’s final soul harvest before the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus prophesied His own coming in Luke 21: 28-32. At His Second Coming He will complete His fulfilment of the remaining Jewish Feasts—Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonements and Tabernacles and one day God will create a new heaven and new earth and then we shall ever be with the Lord!