Sermon – Pentecost – 'The Day of Pentecost" – Acts 2:1-21 – 5/27/07
May 27th, 2007Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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This is the Day of Pentecost. A very significant day in the life of God’s people. I suspect however that we may not think about the Day of Pentecost as being of the same significance as Christmas or Easter. But it is just as significant as all of these. And so, our goal this morning is to remind ourselves of the meaning of this Day of Pentecost as its significance for the Christian life.
I. Pentecost in the Old Testament I want to begin by introducing you to the institution of the Day of Pentecost in the Old Testament. I need you to take your pew bibles out and turn with me to Exodus 23:14-17 (page 64). The setting for Exodus 23 is this. Moses has led Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and into the desert. As they make their journey to the Promised Land, they stop for an extended period of time at the base of a mountain called Sinai. Here, Israel is far enough away from Egypt so as not to worry about further retaliation from Pharaoh’s decimated army. Also, this is a very remote area where none of those other nations, which hassle Israel along the way, live. In other words, God leads His people to Sinai so as to have their undivided attention. And here God gives Moses a lot of rules and instructions for how He intends to be their God and how He intends Israel to be His people.
So, to verse 14 of Exodus 23. "Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the first-fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.”
Three times a year, Israel is to mark these festivals. The men are to appear before the Lord God, wherever the Lord God is to be located. As long as Israel is in the desert, God is located in the “tent,” the “tabernacle,” over the “ark of the covenant.” Later, when they are settled in the Promised Land, God will dwell in the Temple over the same Ark of the Covenant. This is why Jerusalem’s population swelled to three or four times the normal population during these festival weeks. Jewish men and their families would come appear before the Lord as Moses had commanded them to do.
Of the three festivals that Israel is to observe, it is the “Feast of Harvest of the first-fruits” that we’re interested in tracking.
Now, lets turn to Leviticus 23:15-22 (page 101). This is a lot of flipping around through the bible for a Lutheran, I know, but it won’t hurt you one bit. The book of Exodus paints the commandments and instructions of God to His people with broad, brush strokes. The book of Leviticus fills in the important details.
And it the details for how the “Feast of Harvest” is to go that we read at Leviticus 23:15-21, "You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD. And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first-fruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. And you shall make proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations. "
Let’s look at that more closely.
A. This festival is to take place “seven full weeks after the Sabbath when you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.” After 7 full weeks or 49 days have passed, the festival is to begin. That is, it is take place on the 50th day after this particular Sabbath. In the Greek of the New Testament, the word for “50 days” is the word – “Pentecost.”
B. Now, what is this “Sabbath, when you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.” I’m not much of a farmer, but even I know that you to grow things, you must first plant the seed in the ground. When the seed that is planted grows, it produces a crop. When the crop is ready to start being harvested, the very first sheaf of grain that is cut down belongs to the Lord and is waved over the altar as a thank offering to God. In other words, God’s people don’t just take what the Lord provides to them without first saying thank you, because they believe that it all comes from the hand of God.
Israel was to take the very first sheaf of grain and waive it over the altar before God as their way of saying, “thank you for providing us with this crop.” This was to be done on a Sabbath day.
C. So, 50 days after they make this wave offering of the first sheaf of the crop, they were to bring two loaves of bread that were made from that crop to the Lord as a wave offering. “You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved…” These two loaves of bread were the results of the harvest from the seed that was sown. They were the finished products, if you will, the end result.
D. The animal sacrifices that are to be included with the wave offerings are because these wave offerings are being presented by sinful men and women. And so the animal sacrifices sanctify the sinners who bring their gifts to God as well as the gifts themselves.
That is the “Feast of Harvest,” or, as it became known later on, the day of Pentecost, as it was established in the Old Testament.
II. Pentecost in the New Testament When ever we read the Old Testament, we’re always looking to see how, what God does and establishes there, gets us ready for Jesus. Jesus tells us that all of the Old Testament is about Him and points us to Him. This is what the Pharisees and Scribes of His day missed. They knew their Old Testament inside and out but they still didn’t recognize Jesus because they forgot that the Old Testament pointed to the Messiah. Jesus tells them, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think by them, you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures to testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40). Like all of the Old Testament then, this feast of 50 day – “Pentecost” points us directly to Jesus.
In John’s gospel, chapter 12, we read that some Greeks came to Philip saying that they would like to see Jesus. Philip grabs his brother Andrew and Andrew and Philip in turn tell Jesus, “some Greeks want to see you.” Jesus has the strangest reply for them. He says, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:20-24). Jesus always speaks of His own death as His glorification. Seems strange, but this is why He came into the world.
Now, as these non-Jewish, Greek speaking men ask for Him, Jesus knows that the soil had been well prepared and fertilized and it was ready to receive the precious seed that must die in it that it might produce the harvest that was ready to be produced. The hour for Him to be glorified has come.
Jesus Christ is the precious seed. The seed dies and is planted on Good Friday and just three days later it rises and produces an extraordinary crop. It’s a crop of life, even eternal life. Jesus is the first-fruits of the dead. On Easter Sunday, the sheaf is waved before God and the entire world, angels, archangels and all the company of heaven, give thanks for the first-fruits of this extraordinary harvest. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor. 15:20).
So, if Easter Sunday is the day when the sheaf of the great crop is waved before God, then 50 days later, the loaves of bread that are made from that crop are to be presented to God.
The Day of Pentecost. 50 days after Easter. The Holy Spirit presents the finished product of what Jesus has produced by His death and resurrection – not two loaves – but only one, the One, Holy Christian Church. No animal sacrifices accompany this wave offering, for by His death on the cross, Christ has atoned for all sin. This is the One, HOLY Christian Church.
It is the ONE, holy Christian Church. Made up of many grains, yet it is just One loaf. In this One loaf, there are those Greeks who came seeking Jesus, as well as those “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia” that the Apostle’s spoke to in their native language about Jesus and who believed their word. And there are residents of Waterville and Winslow and Fairfield and Oakland and even some residents of Friendship and Lamoine who have heard their word about Jesus and believe. And there are all who have heard and who yet will hear the message about Jesus in their native language, and by that word come to faith and been joined to the One loaf.
It is really you and me and every member of this One, Holy Christian Church, that the Holy Spirit waved before God on the Day of Pentecost. As members of this One Holy Christian loaf, we are the finished products of Christ’s death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit presents to God the Father the work of His only begotten Son on this Day of Pentecost. We are what has been made from Christ. This is the Day of Pentecost.
Related Entries:
» "Fruit of the Spirit" – 9 Sermons» Sermon Index – Lutheran – LCMS
» Pentecost – "The Work Of The Holy Spirit" – John 14:24-25 – 5/23/10
» Sermon – Pentecost 6 – "Predestination" – Ephesians 1:3-14
» Sermon – Pentecost – "The Day Of Pentecost Arrived" – Acts 2:1-21 – 4/11/08
» Sermon – Pentecost 6 – "The Fruit of the Spirit – Kindness" – Galatians 5:19-23 – 7/4/10
