Note: This message was presented by both of our pastors as a team.
Pat:
Once again this morning we’re going to take a break from our journey through Ecclesiastes to focus on the Jewish Feasts and focus on how they reveal Jesus, the Messiah. Back in March, we focused on the three spring feasts – Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits – and we discovered that Jesus fulfilled each of those feasts at his first coming through his life, death and resurrection.
This morning, we’re going to focus on the feast that we know most commonly by its Greek name – Pentecost. However in the Bible it is known by several different names - the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, and the Latter Firstfruits. To the Jews it is known by its Hebrew name – Shavuot.
As we’ve done with the other three feasts, Dana is going to give you some historical background on the origins of the feast and how it is celebrated by the Jews today and I will focus on how Jesus fulfilled the feast and its meaning for us as followers of Jesus.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Dana:
Before we look at the Feast of Weeks in detail, we need to take a few moments to review and put the feast in its proper context.
There are a total of seven feasts that God gave to His people to observe. The feasts are broken down into three main seasons. The Spring feasts – Passover, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits coincide with the barley harvest and were fulfilled by Jesus at His first coming.
The Feast of Weeks coincided with the completion of the wheat harvest and, as we’ll see this morning was fulfilled by Jesus by the giving of the Holy Spirit which inaugurated the church age in which we now live.
The final three feasts – the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles - occur in the Fall, and they will be fulfilled in full by Jesus at His second coming.
The instructions for the observance of the feast of weeks are given to us in Leviticus chapter 23. You may remember that is the same chapter where we also found the instructions for the three Spring feasts that we looked at in March.
15 ’You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. 16 ’You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD. 17 ’You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.18 ’Along with the bread, you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd, and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their libations, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 19 ’You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 ’The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 ’On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
Leviticus 23:15-21 (NASB)
This feast is most widely known to us today as Pentecost, which is a Greek word meaning fiftieth. The feast derived that name because it is celebrated on the fiftieth day following the regular weekly Sabbath that occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When we looked at the Feast of Unleavened Bread we determined that the first and last days of that eight day feast were considered to be High Sabbaths. And sometime during that week there would also be a regular weekly Sabbath. The Feast of Firstfruits was held on the day after that weekly Sabbath and the Feast of Weeks occurred seven weeks later, or fifty days after the weekly Sabbath that occurred during the Feast of unleavened Bread.
The main activity of the Feast of Weeks was the presentation of a wave offering of two loaves of leavened bread before the Lord. Since Israel was an agricultural nation depending on the produce of the land, the Feast of Weeks celebrated the ingathering of the wheat harvest. It was a thanksgiving festival in which Israel expressed her dependence on God for the harvest and for her daily bread. Unlike other grain offerings where the bread was to be thrown into the fire, the loaves that were waved before the Lord during the Feast of Weeks could be consumed by the priests, as long as they were ritually clean. In addition, there were also animal sacrifices made and no laborious work was to be done.
As with the Feast of Passover, all able bodied Jewish men were to come to Jerusalem for the celebration of this feast. Once the Jews had been dispersed throughout the region, these pilgrims would make the long journey to Jerusalem. As we’ll see in a moment, the second chapter of Acts records that Jews from 15 different regions were present at the feast the year of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
Along the way the people would sing songs of praise to God and rejoice in His goodness. At night they would sleep in the squares of the towns through which they passed. Once they arrived in Jerusalem, they would carry the loaves, which represented the firstfruits of their harvest, into the Temple, where the priests would wave the loaves before the Lord.
Since the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the celebration of the feast has changed since the wave offering can no longer be made in the Temple. Today it is primarily a celebration of the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The rabbis made careful calculations to show that the law was given to Moses on the day of the Feast of Weeks. Although we don’t have enough information to prove that conclusively, the information we have in the Bible certainly makes that possible. Although the nature of the celebrations of the feast today vary greatly, most all of them focus in some way on the giving of the law.
To this day, the Book of Ruth is read in connection with the Feast of Weeks. For the Jews, this is due to the setting of the book in a rural area near Jerusalem at the time of the harvest. But it also presents the love between a Gentile woman, Ruth, and her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, which is made possible by the kinsman-redeemer, Boaz. Obviously, as we’ll see shortly, that is a beautiful picture of our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus, who has torn down the dividing wall and brought together Jews and Gentiles into one body, the church.
FULFILLED BY JESUS
Pat:
Most of us naturally associate the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost as it is recorded in Acts Chapter 2. But there are several aspects of the Day of Pentecost that we can only fully understand when we view them in light of the Jewish observance of the Feast of Weeks.
As we saw in our previous look at the Spring feasts. Jesus was crucified on Passover, at the very time the Passover lambs were being slain in the Temple. He was buried at the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and he rose from the grave on the same day as the Feast of Firstfruits. For the next 40 days, the resurrected Jesus remained here on earth, explaining in detail how the Old Testament Scriptures applied to Him.
Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
Luke 24:44, 45 (NASB)
Shortly thereafter, he gave his followers some final instructions and then departed into heaven:
"And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came about that while He was blessing them, He parted from them.
Luke 24:49-51 (NIV)
Luke recounts that same event at the beginning of the Book of Acts:
To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
Acts 1:3-8 (NASB)
Ten days later, Jesus’ followers were all gathered together, along with many other Jews who were there in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Weeks. Luke records what occurred that day:
1 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and marveled, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?
Acts 2:1-8 (NASB)
The next verses go on to describe that there were Jews from at least 15 different regions that were present that day. And as Peter rose to preach a powerful sermon, using the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was indeed the Messiah who had come to save them from their sins, each person heard Peter’s words in his or her own language. And as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit, many became part of the body of Christ, the church:
So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Acts 2:41 (NASB)
Although He had often hinted at what would happen on that day, it was not until the day of the observance of the Feast of Weeks that Jesus fulfilled completely the symbolism that is present in the Feast. Let me focus on just two of those elements.
• The two loaves
In stark contrast to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the bread that was waved before the Lord during the Feast of Weeks was to be made with leaven. There can be little doubt that the two loaves, which represented one single offering, were a picture of two divergent groups that become one on the Day of Pentecost. And the presence of leaven is a picture of sin that exists among those who are represented by the two loaves.
Paul describes what happened that day in his letter to the church at Ephesus. We’ll only have time to look at a portion of that passage this morning, but it should be enough to confirm what Jesus did.
But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
Ephesians 2:13-16 (NASB)
Through His death and resurrection, Jesus put into action a whole set of events that culminated on the Day of Pentecost when Jews and Gentiles were brought together in this new entity called the church. It was only the giving of the Holy Spirit that would complete the breaking down of the walls that had separated Jews and Gentiles for generations. The two loaves – representing the sinful Jews and the sinful Gentiles – are now brought together in the church through Jesus, who is our peace and who is the only one capable of paying the penalty for the sin that existed in both groups.
• Speaking in other languages
Even as early as the time of Jesus, the Jews associated the Feast of Weeks with the giving of the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai. According to Jewish tradition, which would have been quite familiar to those in attendance in Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Weeks, when God gave the law to Moses, he did so by speaking all 70 of the languages of the world at that time. So when the followers of Jesus began to speak in all the different language and dialects of the people present that day, it was clearly a literal fulfillment of that tradition. It was also another demonstration of how the Holy Spirit brought unity to a diverse group of believers.
When Jesus ushered in the Church Age through the giving of the Holy Spirit, He completed His role as the kinsman-redeemer who brought together such divergent groups as the Jews and the Gentiles. As Dana mentioned earlier, that is the same idea that is present in the account that we have recorded in the Book of Ruth, which Jews still read to this day as part of the observance of the Feast of Weeks.
So all of us who are followers of Jesus now live in this season we call the Church Age, one that will continue until Jesus’ second coming, which we will examine in more detail when we come to the fall feasts. It is a time when Jesus intends for all of His followers, regardless of religious background, race, gender or social status to live together in peace and harmony.
In a sense, this church age is a parenthesis in the life of Israel, much like the one that we see in Daniel’s vision of the seventy sevens. But that certainly does not mean that God has forgotten Israel, or that the church has replaced Israel, as some claim. This is all part of God’s plan to permanently reconcile the two houses of Israel to each other and to Himself, a plan that is revealed to us in the Bible from cover to cover.
IMPLICATIONS FOR US
Although I’m sure I could come up with a number of implications for us, let me leave you with just one this morning.
What really impresses me about the Feast of Weeks is that it indicates just how important the body of Christ, the church, is to Jesus. It cost Jesus His life in order to establish the church. And then after His death and resurrection, He still didn’t leave that process to chance. He stayed on the earth for 40 days in order to methodically teach His followers the Scriptures so that they would have an adequate Biblical background for the formation and operation of the church. And finally, He left and returned to the right hand of the Father so that He could send the Holy Spirit to all of His followers to indwell them and guide them on a daily basis as the church was being established.
That’s why I have to believe that it breaks Jesus’ heart when people say things like, “I love Jesus, I just don’t like His church.” How would any of us like it if our spouse were to say to us, “Honey, I love you, but I just don’t like your body.”? It would hurt wouldn’t it? And let’s face it, none of us, even the fittest among us has given anywhere near as much in the care of our bodies as Jesus has done for His body, the church. Here’s how Paul describes Jesus’ love for His body:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NASB)
To be sure the church isn’t perfect. As we saw in the symbolism of the bread, the body of Christ is permeated with the leaven of sin because it is made up of sinners saved only by the grace of God. It won’t be completely pure until Jesus returns again for His bride. But even with all its imperfections, Jesus loves the church and He established it as His only means of carrying out His work here on earth until He returns.
The Feast of Weeks ought to be a constant reminder to us of just how much Jesus loves His body the church. And if we really love Jesus, then it will be demonstrated in our lives by our love for His body, the church.
