The Feast of Pentecost

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

17 March 2019

Updated: March 17, 2019

By:

Boyce Belt

The Feast of Pentecost

Opening:

• Introduction of Series
• Prayer

Text:

Acts 2:1 (KJV) And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Exodus 34:22-23 (KJV) And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

23 Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

Leviticus 23:15-22 (KJV) And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: 16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. 17 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. 18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the Lord. 19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an 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.

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 16:9-15 (KJV) Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. 10 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: 11 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. 12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: 14 And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. 15 Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose: because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.

Introduction:

I told Tammy yesterday that I may have bit off more than I can chew to try to approach today’s topic.  The Feast of Pentecost is known primarily in the Old Testament as the Feast of Weeks, though it is also called by other names.  The name is derived from the fact that it was to be observed on the day following seven Sabbaths after the Passover.  In other words a week of weeks.  In New Testament times it became known as the Feast of Pentecost.  This is because that the Greek language was the primary language of the day and the word “Pentecost” simply means fifty.  Because it occurred 50 days after Passover it always occurred on the first day of the week (Sunday) rather than the Sabbath (Saturday).^[1]

Pentecost celebrated the end of the wheat harvest.  Later it was also celebrated as the day the Law of Moses was given on Mt. Sinai.  Because Jewish males were required to attend Passover and Pentecost at the temple, many would remain in Jerusalem between those festivals.  Since Jesus was crucified on Passover and the Holy Spirit was given to begin the church on Pentecost, many celebrants of that time witnessed both events.^[2]

The Feast of Pentecost has many direct applications to the baptism in the Holy Ghost.  It is not coincidence that the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost on this day.  

There were three feast which were mandatory that all the Israelite men attend at Jerusalem.  The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was one of those.  While we are saved by faith in the shed blood of Jesus and that alone we have gone to far in making the Baptism of the Holy Ghost optional.  Jesus commanded that we be filled with the Spirit.  Failure to be filled is then disobedience.  If we are disobeying Christ than we cannot say we are trusting Him.

1. Reflection

1. Testimony
2. The Word of God
3. Experience must be founded in Truth
4. Subsequent and Distinct

2. Rejoicing

1. Thanksgiving
2. Praise
3. Worship

3. Commitment

1. Consecration
2. Surrender
3. Free Will
4. Maturity—Harvest is regularly used in Scripture as symbolizing people becoming mature and submitting to God.^[3]

4. Sharing

1. A Body of Believers — It is now loaves; not a shelf of separate growths loosely bound together, but a real union of particles making one homogeneous body.  The descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost united the separate disciples into one organism.^[4]
2. A Ripe Harvest

1. A New Covenant—End of Wheat Harvest, beginning of Barley
2. Pentecost symbolized for the church the beginning of God’s harvest of souls in the world.^[5]

3. The Purpose of the Power

Conclusion:

There was a link between the agricultural blessings of rain and a good harvest and the spiritual blessings of the outpouring of the Spirit.  This is especially clear in Joel, where a promise of rain and a good harvest is immediately followed by a promise of the pouring out of the Spirit.^[6]

Joel 2:21-32 (KJV) Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice:

for the Lord will do great things.

22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field:

for the pastures of the wilderness do spring,

for the tree beareth her fruit,

the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.

23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God:

for he hath given you the former rain moderately,

and he will cause to come down for you the rain,

the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.

24 And the floors shall be full of wheat,

and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.

25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten,

the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm,

my great army which I sent among you.

26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied,

and praise the name of the Lord your God,

that hath dealt wondrously with you:

and my people shall never be ashamed.

27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,

and that I am the Lord your God, and none else:

and my people shall never be ashamed.

28 And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

your young men shall see visions:

29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids

in those days will I pour out my spirit.

30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth,

blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,

before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.

32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:

for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance,

as the Lord hath said,

and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

This is why we can sing songs like: Send Down The Rain Lord and Its Raining On The Inside.

Next Week: The Experience of Pentecost—Acts 2

Prayer