What Pentecost Means For You

What are the true roots of Pentecost and what does that mean for us today? We're gonna begin by going to the Jewish root, the foundation of this in the Torah, in the book of Leviticus that we call in Hebrew Vayikra, chapter number 23. What we're gonna read here is that Pentecost, which is just the Greek word for 50, takes place each year, 50 days after Passover. So beginning here, Leviticus 23, verse 16, the Lord says, you shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. This was originally a feast of Thanksgiving. It was an agricultural feast. It was a recognizing that the Lord was the one that had provided the harvest and it was honoring the Lord as the Lord of life and the Lord of the harvest. Israel celebrated this and Jewish people still celebrate it today all over the world. However, Jewish people don't celebrate it as Pentecost. They don't use that Greek name. They use the name Shavuot because Shavuot means weeks and this feast took place seven weeks and a day after Passover. So Jewish people refer to it as Shavuot. Pentecost is not first a Christian Holy Day. It was first one of the days that God gave Israel as recorded back in Leviticus 23. So with that said, now we turn to the book of Acts, chapter number 2, verse number 1. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place and suddenly, suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind. It was powerful and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. It was an immersive experience. It marked them forever and there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them. Power, a tongue of fire. It brings us back to Mount Sinai where the Holy God of Israel appeared above the mountain in fire and in smoke and the mountain shook and they were all filled with the Ruach HaKadosh. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak

with other tongues, but I want you to get this. When they were immersed and baptized by the Holy Spirit here in Acts chapter 2 and began to speak in other tongues, the tongues that they spoke in were not the type of tongues that the traditional Pentecostal movement or expression would be because in traditional Pentecostalism, it is said that a person receives the Holy Spirit when they begin to speak in a tongue that's a prayer language. But the tongues that they spoke in in Acts 2, my beloved friend, was not a prayer language tongue. It wasn't a tongue that was just between the Lord and them, which is this is a beautiful thing and this is a gift. Paul said he thanked God that he spoke in tongues and he did it more than everybody. He wanted everybody to be able to have a personal prayer language, be able to speak to God from the Spirit in an unknown language. So let's understand. I want you to understand that the traditional Pentecostal theology is different from what actually happened in Acts 2. When they spoke in tongues, they were speaking in known languages that they had never learned for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel in every language of those that were at that experience. There were many people that were gathered there. So to make it possible for every hearer to understand the gospel, there was given supernatural gifting to reclaim the gospel in languages that those that had received the gift had never learned. So let's continue. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now, there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. So there's all different types of languages that are being represented here. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, why, they said, are not all these that are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, I might not be saying all the words right, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappocea, Pontus, and Asia, Cretans, and Arabs.

And it says, and yet they were hearing the gospel proclaimed and they were hearing about the mighty deeds of God. And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean? How is it, what's going on here? But others were mocking and saying, they are all full of sweet wine. They just thought it was babbling. So this is a phenomenally supernatural experience. Many people attribute this to the birth of the church. Many people trace the Acts 2 experience as the birth of the church, when the church received power and they began to make disciples and thousands and thousands and thousands of the church kept multiplying and spreading. And I want you to think about this. The birth of the church, get this now, was supernatural. Why am I making a point of this? You might say, yeah, of course, but why am I making a point of it? Because the growth of the church continues to need to happen supernaturally. If we want to see the kingdom spread through our lives, we need to have a supernatural mindset because the church was birthed supernaturally. Yeshua rose from the dead supernaturally. The Holy Spirit was poured out of the church, manifesting himself as a tongue of fire, giving them a supernatural ability

to proclaim the gospel in languages that they had never heard supernaturally. The church is a supernatural movement. We've been brought into covenant relationship, my beloved friends, with a supernatural God. So if you want to walk closely with God, you've got to have a supernatural mindset. Some of us are trapped in our own mind. We make all our decisions based on the pros and cons. We equate everything to the rational. If somebody is too passionate for Jesus, some of you think something's wrong with them. If some people trust God too much, some of you think, well, they're not really using their common sense. There's a place to use common sense. God's given us a mind for a reason. But beloved, we have to make a lot of room for the supernatural in our life. God wants to show up supernaturally. That's how the church was birthed. The church is birthed, beloved, on the resurrection of Yeshua and the giving of the Holy Spirit, both of which are fully supernatural. God bless you. I love you. And we say in Hebrew, Chag Sameach, happy holiday to you. And may your season of Shavuot,

may it be a season where God quickens you to understand how present He is to you by His Spirit. May you be empowered in His fire. In the book of Numbers, chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses the Neron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. ♪ Yeh-va-reche-che-ya-weh-va-yeesh-ma-reh-cha ♪ ♪ Ya-eh-ya-weh-v'nav-eh-leh-cha ♪ ♪ V'hu-neh-eh-cha ♪ ♪ Yissa-ya-weh-v'nav-eh-leh-cha ♪ ♪ Yissa-ya-weh-v'nav-eh-leh-cha ♪ ♪ Ve-ah-sem-leh-cha ♪ ♪ Shalom ♪ The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. God bless you and shalom.