Rex Morgan, 11 June 2011:  The Glorious Meaning of Pentecost!

We no longer observe the holy days in the letter as we used to, but we realise that they do have amazing spiritual meaning, so it is valuable to continue to study them as they come around.  All the Old Testament rituals and ceremonies have awesome spiritual meaning, the sacrifices, the furniture in the tabernacle, the clothing of the High Priests etc, they are all shadows pointing to Jesus Christ, and so are the holy days – they contain a goldmine of spiritual treasures for our edification today.

Pentecost is a particularly meaningful day – a day jammed full of wonderful spiritual insights, lessons and profound principles, so let’s take a survey of the day to refresh some of these things in our minds, and try to unpack even more meaning – which seems to happen year by year continually!  Studying God’s Word is like the facets of a diamond that sparkle in differing ways as you shine and polish them by rubbing them over and over.

The 7 annual holy days were divided into 3 seasons:

·        Passover and Unleavened Bread remind us of Israel’s exodus from Egypt, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: events in the past.

·        Trumpets, Atonement and the great Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering at the end of the year point to events in the future.

·        Pentecost, the middle of the 3 seasons, focuses on the present – what is happening in God’s plan right now – so it is a very relevant day for us.

Exodus 23:14-16 mentions the 3 Festival seasons:

EX 23:14-15 "Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

EX 23:16 "Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

v. 16A  The middle one is called the “Feast of Harvest”.  It involves the “firstfruits of the crops”.

v.16B  The third festival season is also a harvest Festival, but this celebrates the ingathering of the larger harvest at the end of the year.

In Palestine there are 2 harvests, a smaller one, called the firstfruits harvest, at this time of the year and a larger one at the end of the year.

So this is the physical information we read about this holyday in the OT.  To see the spiritual meaning behind it, we need to turn to the New Testament.

JN 4:35 Do you not say, `Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.  JN 4:36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

Jesus is clearly talking about a spiritual harvest of “the crop for eternal life”!  The fields are still ripe for harvest now.  We are spiritual workers in the harvest.   We are part of the spiritual harvest of spiritual crops.

Have you seen the signs springing around all over Auckland, especially outside churches, proclaiming “Greg Laurie Auckland Harvest”?  He is using the analogy of the spiritual harvest, and he is certainly on the ball in that.  His ministry is called “Harvest Ministries”, and he is pastor of the “Harvest Christian Fellowship”.

MT 13:37 He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. MT 13:38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, MT 13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

The parable of the tares talks of the reaping of lives for the KOG as a harvest.  V.39 shows a big harvest, the main harvest, will be at the end of the age.

Some people are being harvested into God’s Kingdom now, but this is just a small number compared to the vast bulk of humanity.

So there are two spiritual harvests, represented by the two physical harvests in Palestine.  The smaller harvest was called the firstfruits harvest.

JAS 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

We, the church, are described as spiritual firstfruits.  We are the spiritual firstfruits harvest of God.

So the day of Pentecost is referring to us!  It is a special day which celebrates us, and our role in God’s Plan!

But it also refers to Jesus Christ, as all of the Old Covenant observances did.  They all focus around Him.

1CO 15:20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1CO 15:23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

So we will be part of the firstfruits resurrection, with Jesus being the “first of the firstfruits”.

REV 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

The great harvest will be later, after the millennium.

So far we have only been looking at one aspect of the day of Pentecost – it is the festival of harvest.

It has some other names too.  It is given two different names in one verse:

NU 28:26 " `On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Feast of Weeks, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

We’ve already noted the spiritual meaning of the day of firstfruits.

Why was it called the feast of weeks?

LEV 23:15 " `From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks.

Because it was 7 weeks after the wave sheaf offering.  This offering was explained in verses 10-11:

LEV 23:10 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.

LEV 23:11 He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.

This was the beginning of the smaller harvest, which lasted 7 weeks and ended with the “Feast of Weeks”, which represented the climax of the harvest.

We just noticed in 1 Cor 15:20,23 that Jesus was the first of the firstfruits, so it is clear that the wavesheaf offering pictured Him, the beginning of the spiritual harvest.

COL 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

COL 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

The waving of the sheaf in the air pictured the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

LEV 23:16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.

Another name for this festival is used in the New Testament, a Greek word, Pentecost = “Fiftieth”.

A grain offering was to be made on this day.

LEV 23:17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.

We have seen that we are the firstfruits, so this offering represents us, God’s Church.

We read about grain offerings in Lev 2:1 ff.

LEV 2:1 " `When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it

·        Fine flour: wheat or corn beaten or ground down to powder – represents Christ’s trials and sufferings

·        Oil: pictures the Holy Spirit, Jesus had with Him

·        Incense: pictures prayer, which Jesus did lots of.

This is the regular grain offering, which points forward to Jesus, not the Pentecost special grain offering.  That was different, as we will see.

LEV 2:2 and take it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.

·        Fire: pictures the trials of Jesus

LEV 2:3 The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. LEV 2:4 " `If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil.

·        Without yeast: pictures Jesus Christ, without sin.

LEV 2:11 " `Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire.

·        Important it had no yeast, or honey – picturing corruption, decay, sin.

LEV 2:13 Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

·        Salt:  Pictures preservation, incorruption – Jesus Christ is the salt of the earth, the light of the world.

The Pentecost grain offering was different.  In fact, it broke one of the rules of grain offerings.  What was different about it? 

LEV 23:17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.

This was the only grain offering that contained leaven, breaking the rule of Lev 2:11.  That’s because this one pictures the Church.  The yeast pictures our sin.  But the waving of the loaf pictures our resurrection.  In spite of our sins, we are God’s people, because of the Holy Spirit.

Why were there 2 loaves?  We’ll look at that, but first, what is the significance of the “fifty days” of Pentecost?

LEV 25:8 " `Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.

Same as the counting of seven weeks for Pentecost, but in this case it is seven weeks of years, i.e. 49 years, not days.

LEV 25:9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. LEV 25:10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.

The 50^th year is the Jubilee – a joyous year of liberty and freedom.

(Notice LEV 23:22 " `When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.' "This ties in with the book of Ruth, the one read by the Jews at Pentecost.)

Surely this pictures spiritual liberty for God’s people, His firstfruits, and indeed this is what happened in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost.

AC 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. AC 2:2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. AC 2:3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. AC 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues* as the Spirit enabled them.

What a wonderful occasion!  And how it ties in with the Feast of Harvest, as the coming of the Holy Spirit introduces the beginning of the spiritual harvest of souls.

It ties in with the Feast of Firstfruits because here was the beginning, the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, given to the firstfruits of the Church of God. 

And it ties in with the “fiftieth” because this is surely a spiritual Jubilee, proclaiming liberty from bondage to sin through the receipt of the Holy Spirit.

Those who have the Spirit of God are the Church of God, so it is well said that this day represents the birthday of the Church! 

It’s interesting that the Jews have always firmly believed that the 10 commandments were given at Mt Sinai on the Feast of Weeks, when the Old Covenant was ushered in.  This would compare beautifully if the New Covenant was ushered in (in a public way) on the very same day!

Actually, Heb 12 compares these two events:

HEB 12:18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; HEB 12:19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, HEB 12:20 because they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." HEB 12:21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I am trembling with fear." HEB 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, HEB 12:23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, HEB 12:24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Mt Sinai flamed with fire

·        The disciples had tongues of fire

Mt Sinai shook and quaked

·        The house shook and trembled

Mt Sinai a physical mountain

·        Mt Zion a spiritual mountain

Noise of thundering

·        Sound of a mighty wind

People begged nothing be said

·        People begged to hear more (3000 baptised)

Law given to physical Israel

·        Holy Spirit given to spiritual Israel

Law written on tablets

·        Law written in our hearts.

The church in the wilderness

·        The church of the firstborn (v.23)

So why were there two loaves in the grain offering on this day?

This section gives a clue.  Heb 12:18-21 describes Sinai and the Old Covenant, vv 22-24 describe Zion and the New Covenant.

I’ve always thought the 2 loaves refer to Old Covenant and New Covenant Israel.

JER 2:3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest.

So OT Israel was called firstfruits, and so is New Testament Israel.

But recently I have read another explanation, and it is a very good one. There is a very strong case that the two loaves represent the Jews and the Gentiles.

Beginning at Pentecost, the Gentiles were brought into the church too, the door was opened for them to be part of Israel.

EPH 3:6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

The Jews always read the book of Ruth at Pentecost.  The story of a gentile who lives with her Jewish mother in law and becomes the grandmother of David – a beautiful story of the joining of Jews and Gentiles.

Jewish tradition is that David was born on this day, and some say he died on this day too.

So perhaps the two loaves of the festival of harvest pointed forward in advance to the entrance of the gentiles into the harvest in the future?  It doesn’t really matter whether they referred to the OT and New Testament Israel, or to the Jews and the Gentiles, because in fact both of these concepts are very similar.  In the OT/OC God worked with physical Israel, the Jews, in the NC/NT it is spiritual Israel including the gentiles.

So doesn’t this day encompass an amazing panorama of meaning!

Basically it is our day, the day that talks about the church.  It talks about the spiritual harvest of all mankind to salvation, beginning with the first of the firstfruits, Jesus Christ, and we who are firstfruits.

But the very word “firstfruits” means there will be other fruits!  And the future harvest will be the big one, much bigger than the present one!

This day also speaks of the Jubilee, and liberty for the poor.  The association with gleaning speaks of our duty to look after the poor.

This day talks about the giving of the law, and the giving of the Holy Spirit – the two covenants.  It talks about the unity of the Jews and Gentiles.

It is a day jammed full of wonderful spiritual insights, lessons and profound principles!

What a privilege for us to have the spiritual understanding that we are a part of the harvest of God.  We have that privilege because we have God’s Holy Spirit, given on the day of Pentecost. Let’s be sure to rejoice and celebrate today our role in the church of God, because that’s what the day of Pentecost is all about!