What is the Feast of Pentecost? Then & Now ~ Part 1

What is the Feast of Pentecost? Then & Now
Part 1

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Text: John 20:19-22 Leviticus 23:1-4, 15-16

There are 3 Major feasts - Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Tabernacles. Jewish men were required by law to go to Jerusalem for them – a “holy convocation.”

Inside Unleavened Bread were: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First fruits
Feast of Weeks stood alone

Inside Tabernacles were - Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles

We spent last week looking at how God, through Jesus fulfilled and activated the first three feasts, so today I want to look at “Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost.” What is it then and now.

I started studying this months ago, wondering what took place on the first Pentecost. Everyone knows about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, but all these feasts started back with the children of Israel leaving Egypt – what event started Pentecost?

Let’s begin by looking at the word Pentecost. Acts 2:1
The word Pentecost can be a scary word for many people, connected with negative connotations.

“Feast of Weeks” is what the Greeks called Pentecost.

The Greek word for 5 is “Penta.” Pentagon in geometry has 5 sides.
Cost = to the 10th power. So penta-cost = 5 x 10 = 50 Pentecost = 50th.
What does Pentecost it mean? 50! It’s a scary word. FIFTY.
Pentecost is in the Bible in a good light, so….

Why are people afraid of the word “Pentecost?” Because the enemy tries to make what God says is special, something to be afraid of.

The Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost was to be celebrated 50 days after Passover.

So back to my original wondering about what took place on the original day of Pentecost in the O.T.?
Hebrew tradition tells us 50 days after the original Passover, was the giving of the Law. That was a MAJOR event!

As you study these two events, the giving of the Law in Ex.19-32, and the giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, there are amazing parallels.

When the Law was given, there was a loud noise, God descended in a cloud, there was fire, God wrote His law on Tablets of Stone, and on that day, 3,000 people died.

On the day of Pentecost, there was a loud noise, there was fire, God descended, God wrote His law on men’s hearts, and 3,000 people were saved.

When God gave the law the people couldn’t keep it. At the giving of the law, down the mountain they were breaking this law.

Now God writes His righteous standard on our heart and the presence of the Holy Spirit gives us the power to live that standard.

Jesus was crucified as the Passover Lamb, He was the unleavened bread, and rose from the grave at the Feast of First fruits.

Following His resurrection, Jesus spent the next 40 days teaching His disciples before ascending to heaven. Then His followers had 10 day prayer. (Acts 1)

After ascending to heaven to sit at the right hand of God, Fifty days after His resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as promised (John 14:16–17) to baptize His followers in the Holy Spirit and empower them for ministry.

The Bible doesn’t give us very much of that teaching and time – the 40 days - just a few snapshot encounters.
John 20:19-22

When God breathed into Adam and Eve what happened? They came alive.

I see this event as the transition from the terms of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

When we are born again, our spirit man comes alive to God, and His breath, His ruwach (roo'-akh) comes into us. That’s the Holy Spirit.

When we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit to live and dwell in us.

This wasn't the giving of "the promise of the Father”, or the baptism in the Holy Spirit. That didn't happen until Acts 2.

Note that this account where Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” took place about 50 days before Pentecost.

Pentecost wasn't for salvation or to have the Holy Spirit live in us, it was to empower us to live and minister with power to be witnesses.

Now look with me at the last words of Jesus in Acts 1:4-9
The last instructions of Jesus were not to Go, but to stay until.

Jesus fulfilled and activated Passover – We can experience this when we apply His blood to our hearts.

Jesus fulfilled and activated Unleavened bread – We can experience this when we live with His law written on our hearts and have the presence of Holy Spirit.

Jesus fulfilled and activated First fruits when He was presented to the Father as the first fruits to rise from the dead – we are the more to come.
Then at Pentecost – “The Promise of the Father” is given for us to experience and live with a baptism in the Holy Spirit.