Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
So, I'm really, really, really excited
to be in the book of Acts. How about you guys? For me, I remember first reading through the book of Acts
for me. I was kind of entrenched. You know, when I first came into saving knowledge of Jesus,
I was really entrenched in the Gospels. And then I remember getting into the book of Acts and this
kind of epic story unfolding. And I've always been a... My mind has always been a kind of guy that
gets drawn into stories. I was a big... When I was a child, I was a big Tolkien guy.
I loved, loved Tolkien. And I grew up in this old farmhouse. And in my bedroom, I had this
big, deep closet. And I filled it up with pillows and put a little light in there. And I would go
in there and read The Hobbit for hours. Hours. And like everything else, I had a very compulsive...
When I got into something, I was like really into it. So, I'd read The Hobbit over and over again
and just get drawn into this story. And then I remember getting introduced to the Lord of Rings.
Lord of the Rings. And I started that out. And when I got into that, I'm there.
Why are all these new characters coming into play here? What happened to... I mean,
Bilbo is kind of the main guy here. Why is everything changing? And the whole story unfolded
into this epic thing where The Hobbit was just kind of setting up this larger story.
And I remember kind of feeling that way when I was in the book of Acts. I'm there. Well,
what happened to... What happened to Jesus? The main character. He was kind of our guy. And who
is this Paul? And what is happening here? But as I got into the story of Acts and it just began
to unfold, I just realized this is this great journey where these small ragtag group of people
who common people were filled with the spirit and their lives were transformed to the point where
they literally changed the world. So it's always been this amazing story to me. And today,
we're going to talk about Pentecost, which is another just amazing story of where God just
launched the church with this powerful moving of the spirit. But would it surprise any of you
to know that perhaps Pentecost maybe wasn't a new thing. So when we think of Pentecost,
we can picture any number of scenes. It's intimate gathering of the apostles as they prayed,
perhaps in the upper room and they waited for God's spirit to move and there was this miraculous
outpouring of the spirit that launched the early church and people were talking in tongues and
masses of people were turning to Jesus. But the day of Pentecost was actually
a Jewish festival day called Shavuot. And they had been celebrating this for
many, many, many, many centuries. So Shavuot stood for weeks and Pentecost is the Greek
translation of that word. And it was seven weeks or 50 days after Passover. So it was the second
feast of the firstfruits. There was two celebrations of firstfruits and we'll get
into that a little bit later. But this was to celebrate the wheat harvest. So before we go
any deeper into that, and I want to go deeper into that, let's start by reading some of Acts
chapter two. And I'm going to be skipping around a little bit. I'm not going to do a straight
straight read through this. So bear with me on this. So when the day of Pentecost came,
they were all gathered in one place. Suddenly a sound like blowing of a violent wind came from
heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of
fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in
Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd
came together in bewilderment because each heard it in their own language was being spoken.
Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't all these people speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each
of us are hearing them in our native language? Parthians, Medes, and Emulates, residents of the
Mesopotonia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Phlegra, I can't quite get that one, and
Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya near Syrian, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to
Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.
Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean? Some however made fun of them and
said, they have had too much wine. Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice to address
the crowd and said, fellow Jews, all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you.
Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the
morning. And then I'm going to skip to 41. He says, those who accepted this message, and we'll
get to that stuff in the middle soon enough, they were baptized and there was about 300 that
were added to the number that day. Now that's 3000, thank you. And as I read through that,
I've read through it many times, there were things that stood out to me a little bit. And
I love to, as I'm reading, I love to, you know, picture in my mind, you know, what the scene
was, I'm a visual, visual learner. And most of the times as I am studying something like this,
my picture begins to change as I dig in a little deeper. And I know if you know me,
if you've heard me teach before, you know that I love to consider the cultural relevance of things
that are being taught. I love context. I love to understand the wise. I like to, you know,
look at who, who God was addressing here and try to, you know, figure out, okay, wow, what,
what all, what all was happening. I love studying the scriptures. I love digging a little deeper.
I love cross referencing Old Testament, New Testament. I love the hidden treasure
and I love the hints that are, that are in scripture because oftentimes we skip over
the hints that are in there and the Jews had a little word for them. They were called pearls.
So when we, there were some things in here, little hints that kind of
stood out to me, should we say. So they were all together in one place in the house.
Well, there was a crowd of 3000 people or so that gathered could have been more. Just said 3000
were saved and baptized. And well, we know, and if you've seen pictures and if you've been there,
you know, the city of Jerusalem is pretty tight. Okay. The streets are narrow. They're winding.
So I did a little digging into this. Well, how could they have been gathered in a house?
Well, the Jewish law tells us that they would have been all together that day in God's house.
So there's a possibility that this could, there's a strong possibility that when they say house,
what they meant was the house of God, the temple, so to speak. So Deuteronomy 16 says,
count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then
celebrate the festival of weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion
to the blessing the Lord has given you and rejoice before the Lord your God at the place
he would choose as the dwelling for his name. You, your sons and your daughters, your male
and female servants, the Levites in your living, they're living among you. Remember
that you were slaves in Egypt and follow carefully these decrees. Three times a year,
all the men must gather, appear before the Lord your God in the place that he would choose
and the festival of unleavened bread, the festival of weeks and the festival of the
tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty handed. Each of you must bring a gift
in proportion to the way the Lord has blessed you. So the Jews would have been at the temple,
at the house. So now I'm not saying couldn't have happened in a room or the upper room and
then they transitioned to the temple. Possibly there was another hint that was given here.
They specifically say nine in the morning. Well, that nine in the morning would have been the
exact time that they would have been bringing their sacrifices and prayers to the temple.
So devout Jews, including the disciples, would naturally be at the temple on this holy day.
So Shavu is one of these three temples, one of these three festivals where they're commanded
to bring. So another part of this scripture says there was this international crowd that describes
Jews of every nation under heaven being presented. These would have been pilgrims who came to
Jerusalem for specifically for this festival. So
finding a place large enough to facilitate a crowd like this.
And it also said that 3,000 Jews were baptized. So when you look at this amazing archaeological
dig here, this is the southern steps of the temple called the Houdegate.
And it's many scholars believe that this is the likely location where Peter would have given this.
It was a public gateway for massive crowds. It was kind of this almost, they talk about it as
being this amphitheater type things. They call it actually the rabbi's stairs. So these steps
were famous for being used for teaching. And what do you know that during their excavation,
they have uncovered over 40 ritual immersion baths, which would have been called mitzvahs.
I'm not pronouncing that right. Anyway, somebody will correct me. So these were directly at the
one. So if you look at these, you get a little closer, they were kind of this progression. One
of these days I'm going to remember to bring a pointer where I can kind of point here. So
they would have been ideal for mass baptisms. So speculative, sure, it's okay. But it's okay.
God likes us to kind of dig in and think further on these things. And I believe that God,
I know for me, God meets me. God meets me when I choose to really get in and just really try
to understand and dig through this. Jesus himself, he did not teach plainly. He taught so that people
would have to intentionally want to get in and learn more. He taught in ways that challenged
people and made us want to figure out more. Proverbs two, four to five says,
if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
So just picture this scene where Peter and the apostles are up here and these crowds,
thousands of them were gathered. And then the Holy Spirit is just being poured out
and he's moving in this, this powerful, powerful way amongst the people. I mean,
it's just got to be this amazing, amazing scene that they were all involved in.
And they had to kind of be kind of winking to each other. That's what Jesus talked about,
right? He said, wait in the coming, the power, the Holy Spirit. And it was just happening.
So now let's explore a little bit more of these pearls.
So Shavuot, second feast of the first fruits celebrating the wheat harvest. So Leviticus
23, nine through 14 says, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say to them,
when you enter the land, I am going to give you and you reap its harvests.
Bring to the priest the sheaf of the first grains of the harvest.
He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so that it will be accepted on your behalf.
The priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. So this would be the first
of the first fruits, which would have been the barley fruit. We'll talk a little bit
more about that in a second. So together with its grain offering and a tenth of an epa,
the first, the finest flour mixed with olive oil, good offering presented to the Lord,
a pleasing aroma and its drink offering of a quarter of a hint of wine. You must not eat
any bread or roasted or roasted any of the new grain until the very day you bring the offering
to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for generations to come wherever you live.
So the celebration of the first fruits, the first festival was the barley harvest,
and that was immediately after Passover, which would have been what? The resurrection.
So Jesus was resurrected on the first fruits. So this is the second one that we're talking about,
and this was the celebration of the wheat harvest. And the wheat was considered a much more desirable,
a finer, making the bread. Barley was typically even thought of like a poor man's grain.
So this marked the end of the barley harvest in the beginning of the wheat.
But it also commemorated the giving of the law to the Jews on Mount Sinai,
the giving of the covenant on Mount Sinai. So in addition to gathering their harvest
and being thankful and celebrating that the Jews would have recounted the gathering on Mount Sinai,
which was 50 days out of Egypt.
So it not only represented a time to remember, but a hope for the future for them,
because the harvest represented this prophetic hope in God's covenant. So devout Jews,
these people who spent their life studying his scriptures would have made this connection
on the day of Pentecost, what God was doing on this special day for them, what he had been
calling them to do for centuries. The Spirit was now fulfilling all of that.
And in the end, it's not just about that. It's about what God has done for us.
Ezekiel 36, starting in 24, says, for I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from
all of the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you,
and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you
your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you
and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land
I gave your ancestors, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all
the uncleanliness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful. I will not bring famine
upon you. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field so that you will no
longer suffer disgrace among the nations. Ezekiel is just loaded, overflowing with prophetic imagery
of this very moment. So God was using this day, this special day, this special festival
for the Jews to telegraph and amplify this new movement that he was pushing forward.
And to make it even clearer to them,
there are some very, very remarkable similarities between the covenant that was given on Mount
Sinai and the new covenant that was being poured out here, which they were experiencing.
So the law was given on Mount Sinai, and God was pouring out his spirit on Mount Zion. Jerusalem
would have been considered Mount Zion, but if you say, hey Jamie, that's not a real mountain.
Actually it was a mountain. There was Mount Moriah, which is what the temple was actually
built on. But they would have considered it Mount Zion, where God's spirit was. So God's spirit
was miraculously and magnificently poured out, and he was sealing this new covenant with them,
just like Torah was poured out and given, and the Spirit of God was on that instructing them
and convicting them and teaching them. He's doing that with his spirit. God manifest himself in a
dynamic way in both of these situations. Lightning and fire and smoke and trumpets
on Mount Sinai, and the blowing of the wind and tongues of fire
on the day of Pentecost. God's presence was there in a mighty way. God descended on the mountain
in a powerful way, and then God descended on his people in a miraculous way. Jeremiah 31,
31 through 33 reads, the days are coming declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with
the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made
with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant, though I was husband to them, declares the Lord.
This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts. I will be their God,
they will be my people. God was fulfilling this right before their very eyes.
They were participating in this with God, and they would have recounted so many of these prophetic
scriptures. God's covenant was given, so the law was written on Mount Sinai,
and then the law was written in the hearts of the people.
Not on stone, in their hearts, in our hearts. This is the presence of God
that was being inscribed in their hearts. It's no longer this physical temple.
God's dwelling place is now, instead of the physical temple and the tabernacle,
He is dwelling in His people, in us. I mean, just imagine that. We are now the vessels.
We, Lansdale Life, we are the vessels now that are carrying His Spirit, His very presence.
Everywhere we go, from here, this coming Friday, on first Fridays,
it puts it in a little bit of a different perspective when we're out there, right?
That His presence, we are His vessels, His glory, His power is in us.
And I believe that at this moment in time, that He was preparing the Jews
for the ultimate destruction of the temple,
saying to them, you are now the temples, you don't need this physical temple.
The sacrifices don't have to happen anymore because I am the perfect sacrifice, blemish free.
And then the magnificent culmination of all of this, there were 3,000 redeemed and baptized.
Because at Sinai, there were 3,000, imagine that. Imagine that lining up just like that.
Just incredible, isn't it? 3,000 were killed.
And on Pentecost, 3,000 were redeemed, restored, and baptized.
The exact number. Incredible, isn't it? Isn't God's Word amazing?
I was talking to someone about this just last week, and it was like,
mankind is not smart enough.
We're just, there are some very, very, very far more intelligent than me or anyone in this room out there.
But we're just not smart enough to put together this incredible Bible, Scripture,
and to have everything kind of work together like this.
All of these numbers, all of these things, all of these, you know,
various things throughout that Scripture that as you dig, oh wow, this, you know,
the more I dig, I see that this means this, and this means we're just not smart enough to do it.
The more you read and the more you study His Word, you realize His divine presence,
God's divine presence, wove all of this together.
And it's the more you read and the more you study, the more amazing His Word is.
God is retelling the story of His covenant here in a powerful, redeeming way as Jesus
outpours the Spirit and the Jews. Most 100% would have made the connection
between all this Old Testament, the Shabbawood that they've been celebrating for years,
the connections that were happening here with Sinai. Paul absolutely connected the dots.
2 Corinthians, one of many Scriptures that points to this, 3 through 6.
You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not in ink,
but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but the tablets of human
hearts, such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves
to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us
competent as ministers of this new covenant, not the letter, but the Spirit, because the
1 Corinthians 3, 16, did you not know that you yourselves are God's temple, that God's Spirit
dwells in us? This would have been unbelievably significant to these Jews to hear this, to say
His Spirit is dwelling in me now. So God was pouring out His Spirit for a very specific mission.
For these disciples and these pilgrims that were there to take the kingdom,
to proclaim this message, to be His ambassadors now, He was anointing them with the Spirit,
empowering them to do this thing, to tell this story of the new covenant that He was doing,
this new thing that God was pouring out on them. Let's continue in Acts.
In the last days, and Peter is quoting directly from the prophet Joel here,
in the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters
will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.
Even my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
This outpouring of God's Spirit as Peter gets up and addresses, and he continues with Isaiah 49.6,
I will make you a light for the nations, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
So Peter, my fellow Jews, you are no longer this inward facing religion.
This is no longer about just you. This is about taking what God has given you out to the nations.
Out. And if you really study in the Old Testament, getting into Leviticus and Judges,
and now we're in Joshua, you will see that this was God's plan from the beginning,
to take it to the nation. We are to be a light. They were to be a light.
You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. Our Messiah, our long-awaited Messiah,
God has raised him from the dead. Now go and tell. The prophets foresaw this day,
all of them did, and they wrote about it. The Spirit, this transformation that was happening
to send them out from Mount Zion. You will be my witnesses, fulfilling this promises.
These 3,000 Jews that were baptized and filled with the Spirit, He has anointed you,
empowered you, and He's sending you now to the Gentiles, to every nation. This is still,
He's still speaking directly just to the Jews. The Gentiles will come into the picture as we
get billed out in Acts, but His Spirit was being poured out in an undeniably powerful way that had
an immediate impact on these people, and it changed everything for them. It changed everything.
Continuing in Acts. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship,
to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with all that the many wonders and
signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.
They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day, they continued
to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people,
and the Lord added to their numbers those who were being saved.
So not only was God pouring out His Spirit on them and sending them out,
but God was creating this Spirit-filled community. So not just going out, but taking care,
feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the widows and orphans,
standing up for the marginalized. This was a major part of what was happening, but guess what?
It was also a major part of Shavuot, the celebration, carrying the needs of the people.
Listen to this. In Leviticus 23, 22,
when you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field
or gather the glaining of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner
residing among you. I am the Lord your God. God told them to bring an offering of proportion
of how the Lord was blessing them. So God was, the first fruits were given to God
as part of this celebration, but the uncut corners of their field, the greater portion,
the more abundant portion was left for the needy. This goes all the way back to Leviticus.
The uncut corners at Shavuot was a foreshadowing of the harvest of salvation that God was sending
them to reap back in. It extended far beyond Israel. It fulfilled the meaning of Pentecost,
the true meaning. This was a huge, huge part of the message of Pentecost. For so often,
I would just think of it, okay, this was the great pouring out of the Holy Spirit
you know, for the people and for me and the empowering of the Holy Spirit,
but such a bigger part of this. It says it right there that they formed this community.
They were doing all of this stuff to take care of those.
So God builds into this celebration and commands his people to leave these edges of their crops.
The provision that God has given us, we're giving back portion to him, but the more greater portion
going to the poor and the foreigners or the Gentiles. So the feast wasn't just about
gratitude. It was about intentional inclusion for outsiders.
So it says, Jews from many nations were present. So the Spirit enables the Gospel to go
far, far beyond Jerusalem, taking these uncut corners. So it wasn't just,
Jesus is not just exclusively for them. He's not just exclusively for us.
Pentecost calls us as God pours his Spirit on us to overflow and to take this abundance
out, to take this kingdom message out, but to care for the marginalized and the poor as well.
These believers were giving as they saw need. They were taking care of the lost. They were
actually selling property and selling their things so that they could do this.
This was radical Spirit-led living and it reflects the outrageous
generosity that God has towards us. Doesn't it? You think about the generosity that God has for us
and this is a mere reflection of that. So God was saving the greater harvest, the finer
of the harvest to be that fragrant offering to those who are lost.
Peter also had a clear vision and a clear understanding of what was happening on that day.
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were
redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.
We sung about this this morning, the righteous one, the Lamb of God.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He was beyond blemished sacrifice
and Jesus was crucified and killed on Passover. He was the spotless lamb,
not a lamb that had to come back and come back and come back and be sacrificed over again.
It was once that his blood was poured out and he was the final sacrifice.
1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 23 says, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,
the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man,
the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as an Adam all die,
so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn Christ the first fruits,
then when he comes, those who belong to him.
He was raised on the festival of first fruits. Jesus was the first fruits raised to new
resurrection. His body never again to die. He was the sheaf that it talks about in Leviticus,
the first of the harvest that was weighed before the Lord in celebration of Thanksgiving and then
50 days after that on Shavuot or Pentecost, God told the Jews to bring an offering to them
in proportion to how he is blessed. So Shavuot, you're not just bringing this thank offering,
but you're at the temple and you're leaving so much more for those who were left behind.
The worship team could start making their way up here.
So on this day, the church experienced true Pentecost.
It was the beginning of this new and this powerful movement
that literally would change the world.
I often thought about what it must have been like to have that pouring out of God's spirit.
I spent so many years in my early days as a believer just seeking God and just saying,
pour out your spirit and pour out your spirit. I did experience it so many times,
but I remember going through this journey of just crying out to God to fill me in,
let his presence come on me. And it was just this time where I just felt like I was just
chasing and chasing and chasing this thing. And I remember so clearly, I remember so clearly
God saying to me, my spirit is in you. I am waiting for you to release it to people.
And I'm not saying that God doesn't pour his spirit down and come down on us in times,
but the overwhelming majority of times God is saying, release what I've put in you.
Release what I have given you to those around you, those you work with, those in your neighborhood,
those who are on first Fridays, release that spirit that's coming out of you that I have
deposited it in you. So the question isn't necessarily what God did on Pentecost.
It's not just what he did from historical perspective, but it's what he's doing
today. It's what he's doing today in us. You know, the Holy Spirit is in us. It's dwelling in us.
The spirit is still here today, the same as it was.
It's still here. And you know what else is still here? The harvest is still rising.
And God is saying, I want you to experience that level of true Pentecost. I want you to take those
uncut corners that you have. We all have uncut corners, don't we? We have so much that God has
given us and we have these uncut corners to the suffering and to the weak and to the marginalized
that he's waiting for us to give them. He's waiting for us to be these ambassadors that take his
message out there. I remember hearing a message one time from Keith Green where he was talking about
you know, going out and taking this message to the kingdom and I'll paraphrase because I
certainly don't remember it all. But he said, if God hasn't specifically called you to stay,
then go. Because know this, that if he's not specifically speaking something to you,
he already wrote it down in his word what you are to do. And it's all spelled out for us here in
Pentecost what we are supposed to do. I was talking to a gentleman two weeks ago who was saying,
you know, I'm just waiting. I'm waiting on, you know, God's starting to do this and I'm just
waiting for him to do this particular thing in my life. And I said, while you're waiting,
keep doing what he already has told you to do. He's already told us in scripture what to do.
He's already giving us very clear directions. He's already empowered us with his spirit
to take those uncut corners and to reach the multitudes with his word. Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you, Lord, for the abundance, God, you have given us, Lord, the blessing. We thank you
that you poured yourself out, Lord, as that final offering, that blemish free offering,
God, the lamb of God, the holy lamb who was sacrificed for us.
And we thank you, God, that you have filled us with your spirit, God, and called us,
called us, sent us as ambassadors, Lord, with that word to those around us. And I pray, God,
that you give us the courage to step out in that and to realize, God, that that spirit
is just in us waiting to be released to those around us, those in need.
And we give you all the praise and the glory in your name. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day!