Introduction to Shavuot
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Hello everybody! Welcome to Shavuot! Today is one of the appointed times that God has given us in the Bible to observe and I am here as your fellow sister in Christ to explain why we as Christians should be observing Shavuot.
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So buckle up and get ready because we're about to get a great big lesson on everything you ever wanted to know and didn't know you needed to about Shavuot and the appointed times.
Importance of Observing Shavuot
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Well, thank you for being here with me, whether you are following along on a podcast or whether you are watching a video somewhere. I'm so glad that God has led you to this event and that you are curious to know why you should be celebrating Shavuot.
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Shavuot is a Hebrew word and it means weeks. So we are celebrating the seven sevens and the culmination of that, which is the final harvest.
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As we know, God gives us signs in the Old Testament that point toward Jesus.
Biblical Connections to Shavuot
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He gave us prophecies that Jesus would fulfill, and he gave us even appointed times.
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And we may be familiar with the fact that Jesus was represented in the Passover, but what you may not know is that he was actually represented also, or is represented, I should say, in the ah first fruits the as well as Shavuot, which is the um final harvest of the season.
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And that is when God gave us the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant. So we know that when we celebrate Pentecost, we we may be familiar with the fact that it's Greek for 50 days.
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So there are some sects of Christianity which celebrate Pentecost.
Old and New Covenants
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But when we're saying that, we're still alienated, we're divorced from the Jewish concept of Shavuot.
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So we are missing the connection between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And it's important for us to understand that our God is complete.
Holy Spirit and Christian Faith
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there is three head and there is the three in one he is father son and holy spirit and shavuot is the day that we commemorate because that is the day that god was sending us the outpouring of the holy spirit in the old covenant he gave us the uh ten commandments and the torah and so what was written on stone would now be written on our hearts and so we will be seeing in today's discussion how jesus represents that and how he also celebrated this
00:02:53
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and asked us to continue doing so he did not ask us not to he said that he came to fulfil the law not to abolish it and part of god's law says that we are to observe these holy times So we are going to head into our Bibles because that's the best place to find God's word.
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And we are going to be looking at first Leviticus chapter 23, where we're going to be seeing the relationship between Passover and then Passover.
Passover and Sequential Events
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ah Bikram, which is the day that Jesus actually rose. And then we are going to see what we call the counting of the Yomer, which consists of the 50 days.
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And then it culminates on Shavuot, which is the 50th day. And that will be the day that that we commemorate as being the day that God gave us the Holy Spirit.
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So let's first look at our Bibles. And if you are wanting to follow along, feel free to turn to Leviticus chapter 23. And I'm going to start reading in verse four.
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I read from the Tree of Life version, which is a Messianic Jewish Bible. And it just means that they are using more of the Hebrew words that are more understood, more complete than some of our English translations.
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Like when we have the word love, we know that sometimes it is agape love. Sometimes it is brotherly love, Philadelphia. And so this just gives us more complete translation. it It reserves some of the original words, which carry a lot of depth.
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The first section, ah was starting with chapter 4, is referring to Pasach and the Feast of Matzo. Pasach is Passover. So it says, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you are to proclaim in their appointed season.
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So what this means is that God is appointing these. These are appointed times. And when God makes an appointment, he shows up.
Divine Rest and Special Days
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The problem is, is that we have been missing these appointed times.
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We see them and we just say, oh, okay, that was Passover. And it might even be on our calendar, but we're not doing anything specifically to observe Passover. and And it's important as Christians that we actually need to be observing Passover because according to God's word,
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This is something that we are still commanded to do. Just in the same way that Jesus gave us communion to do to remember him, do this in remembrance of him.
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It was a given that we would still be celebrating the Passover because these were foreshadowing for Jesus's arrival and sacrifice for our sins.
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During the first month, on the 14th day of the month, in the evening, is the Lord's Passover. On the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Matzo, which is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
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And this is to add this is to the Lord. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to have a holy convocation, and you should do no regular work.
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So this season is to be celebrated by us with a special with special days of rest. God gifts us with special days of rest.
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Throughout the rest of the year, we are given one day of rest. And we sometimes look at that as, oh man, I'm not supposed to do anything. It's the Sabbath. And we do we end up with that being our chore day or the day we go to church and then get a bunch of chores done.
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But God intended it to be a day of rest. It is a gift that we are to look forward to. So having extra days of rest are gifts that God has given us.
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And if we don't accept those gifts, it's just rude. If somebody gives you a gift or you give somebody else a gift and they say, no, I'm good. Don't you feel a little offended by the fact that they have not accepted your gift?
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That is the same thing we are doing when we refuse to accept God's gift of rest for us on these special days. So commencing with chapter, ah verse 6, it says, On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of matzo to the Lord.
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For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. So that is the day after the Passover. So if there's Passover, and then that right after that, it immediately starts the feast of unleavened bread.
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On the first day, you are to have a holy convocation, and you should do no regular work. Instead, you are to present an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days.
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We no longer have the temple, so we don't celebrate by giving a fire offering. However, that doesn't mean we can't take a day of rest. And on the seventh day is a holy convocation where you are to do no regular work.
First Fruits Offering
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So we have the Passover day. We have the day after Passover. And then we have they ah the seventh day after that, which are all separate days that we are given as rest.
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speak to the children of israel said adonai spoke to moses and said and tell them when you have come into the land which i give you and reap its harvest then you are to bring the omer and omer is a unit of measurement of the first fruits of your harvest to the priests we no longer bring our agriculture to the to the priests but what we can and do is celebrate by giving our pastor or our rabbi as the case may be a gift and so ah we can give them fruit whatever it is it's to be first fruits it's to be the best of what we have so we can buy something super nice in in like fruit give a fruit basket put it together and give it to your pastor
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It could be homemade ah ah made something. But what we're looking to do is it should be something that is grown. And when we bring that, then the priest, it says he is to wave the offering, the omar, before the Lord to be accepted for you.
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In the days of ah agriculture, this is a very agrarian, meaning an agricultural society. They would actually, in order to feed the the the priesthood, and in order to have that first fruits, the people would tie a ribbon around the first fruits that were gathered because the first of everything we are to set aside for God.
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We're to give God our best and we are to give him the first of what we receive because it shows that we are trusting in him and giving back to him what he has already given to us.
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And we are taught throughout the Bible that when we give to God, that he gives back to us and he gives back to us with abundance. So this is in anticipation of receiving ah an abundant harvest from him at the end of the harvest.
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This is done at the beginning. And then Shavuot is the final harvest where we again offer another offering.
Jesus and Prophecy Fulfillment
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But it's a free will offering. We'll get to that in a moment.
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But this is where we take a time to give back to God. So if you don't have agriculture, then you can give an extra tithe. you can give a gift of of something where we are honoring God's command.
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The priest will wave it. and then the And then on the day after the Sabbath, then the priest is to wave it. So that is the day of first fruits.
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So that is the day after the Sabbath. so we have the Passover. And then we have the day after, which starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And ah in this case, when Jesus was the Passover lamb, we know that he was crucified on Friday.
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And we know that he had to be already dead by the end of the day because that would start ah the Sabbath at sundown. And so, for instance, we know that he was already dead because when they came around to break the legs of the other people who were on crosses beside him, they had to break their legs, but Jesus's legs did not need to be broken.
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And so we know that this was fulfilled and that no bone would be broken. So as Christians in our study of the Bible, sometimes we have a tendency to selectively follow and believe what we are reading.
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And I'm going to explain what I mean by that. We recognize that Jesus fulfilled the Passover, but we lack the understanding to realize that he was the first fruits of this first offering that God commanded us to bring.
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He gave us his first fruits, his one and only son. He gave to us that whoever would believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life.
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And we read 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20 that jesus is the firstborn of the of of the dead it says
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and in chapter ah chapter 15 starting in verse 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Messiah has been raised. And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is meaningless and your faith also is meaningless.
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Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses of God because we testified about God that he raised up the Messiah, whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Messiah has been raised.
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And if Messiah has not been raised, then your faith is futile. you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Messiah have perished. If we have hoped in Messiah in this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all people.
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But, says chapter, or it says verse 20, but now Messiah has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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This explains that in the beginning, the Jewish believers, the disciples, they recognized that Jesus, when he rose on the day of first fruits, which they called bickering, it sounds like bickering, like you're arguing, but it's actually pronounced bickering.
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He rose on the day of bickering, that day of the first fruit offering. Jesus is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also has come through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah will all be made alive.
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and Nobody doubts what we are reading here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, but we may not understand it. We may be trusting that what God's word is true and we say, oh yes, he is the first of all the to be raised from the dead.
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But what we are not making that connection to is the fact that Jesus's resurrection occurred on Bikarim, the day of first fruits.
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God gave us that first fruits offering. He brought us his best. And so we have made in the church the day of Easter to celebrate Jesus's resurrection.
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When in reality, we need to be celebrating the Karim because that is the actual day. And if you have been reading the Bible for any length of time, you know that one of the big complaints that God had against his people of Israel is that they were making man-made rules.
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They had rabbinical laws. that were made by the rabbis and they had been elevating the rabbinical laws to a place above God's laws.
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And so God tells us in Isaiah that he was not pleased with this, that he says that you have, you worship me with your mouths, but in your heart, you are not worshiping me and you are following man made rules.
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But my brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm here to tell you that we too have committed this exact same sin. And we may have done so innocently by trying to simply set up a day as a remembrance of Christ's resurrection.
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But God already gave us that day. We don't need to make one. He already gave it to us. And he even sent Jesus.
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In the same way that he gave the law that would be written on the tablets, he then fulfilled that, as we may be aware, when he gave us the Holy Spirit, where now the law is written on our hearts.
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So what God started in the Old Covenant, we don't dispute the fact that he fulfilled in the New Covenant, but we have a tendency to be disconnected.
Counting of the Omer
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from the Old Testament, the old covenant.
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It's actually more accurate to say old covenant because it was a covenant, not a Testament of God. A Testament is when you witness and you say something, but these are covenants that God made with us as people.
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And as the wild branch that has been grafted into the Jewish religion, we are failing to see our connection, our heritage, our roots in understanding how Jesus fulfilled and these these prophecies, these ah festivals.
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We are still meant to follow them to this day, much in the same way that Jesus gave us a new covenant and told us to do the communion where he said, do this in remembrance of me.
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And we take the wine or the juice and we remember that this was his blood that was shed for us. And we eat the matzo, the unleavened bread that was fulfilled at the Passover.
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which is now remembered in the Passover. And we take this bread that has been broken for us, his body. So getting to Shavuot, then Jesus rose on that third day, which is Bikarim.
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And then there was the ah following Bikarim, the first fruits. We're going to go back to Leviticus chapter 23.
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and read in chapter ah in verse 15 of chapter 23, then you are to count from the day after the Sabbath, that's Sunday, from the day that you brought the Yomer, from the day you brought that firstfruits offering, from the day he rose on Bikarim, until seven complete Sabbaths.
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until the day after the seventh Sabbath. So seven sevens is seven times seven, which we know is 49. forty nine And until the day after the seventh Sabbath, you are chick you are to count 50 days.
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That is the counting of the Omer that we started with at the beginning of this event. So God commands us to count 50. One through 50, not 50 down to one.
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It is not a countdown. It is a count up for expectation. We are expecting. And at the end of the 50 days, this is when you are to bring a new grain offering to the Lord.
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So this is another ah final harvest day. This is Shavuot. That day is called Shavuot. And that's the day we're talking about here today. And then they were to bring two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah
Symbolism in Biblical Festivals
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of fine flour. And they are to be baked with yeast as first fruits to the Lord.
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Here we have that word again, first fruits. Now, in the time that this would be starting at the very first on Bickering, the three days later, that is the day that the barley harvest started.
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And you may remember in our readings, of the in your readings of the Bible, that Jesus said that the fields are white with harvest. That is the barley harvest he's actually referring to.
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At the end, you are to bring fine flour specifically. Fine flour would be made out of wheat, and now it has reached the wheat harvest. and they are to be baked with yeast, which is the opposite of the unleavened bread.
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So this is what we would call a bookend. We have Passover, and then we have the first fruits, We have the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which occurs during this time after and during first fruits. They bring the barley, and then they have seven days of unleavened bread.
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And remember, the Passover meal was to be eaten in haste. And that's why we have the unleavened bread, is because it was in remembrance that when the Israelite people left Egypt, they were left in haste.
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There was no time for the bread to rise, so they had to eat unleavened bread. at the end of the feast, at the end of the Feast of Weeks, at the end of the 49, the 50 days, then they are to eat bread baked with yeast.
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So during this time, there is growth. There is the bringing in of the harvest. There is the first fruits harvest, and then there is the final harvest. That final harvest being Shavuot, Shavuot,
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And it a day of outpouring, and it is a day of yeast. It is a day of growth, because yeast grows so that what was started out as flat has now grown.
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Make sense? There is a lot of symbolism that God gives us. And we all do like to eat, don't we? So God is even using food in his symbolism because in the ah but at the time of Passover, all yeast needs to be removed from the home because yeast symbolizes sin.
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Now we will be given the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Shavuot.
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Now it says you are to present along with the bread, ah an offering and we don't do that anymore because we don't have the temple for that.
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And it says, you are to make a proclamation on the same day, which is Shavuot. It is to be a holy convocation and you should do no regular work. So in the same way that God gave us ah rest on the other days, he gives us extra day of rest for Shavuot.
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He gives us a special holiday as a memorial. In the United States and in other parts of the world, we have holidays to celebrate remembrances of things that have happened.
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So God is actually the author of this concept. He gives us an extra day of rest, and that's a blessing. And he says at the end of verse 21, this is a statute forever.
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in all your dwellings throughout your generations. It doesn't say until I have fulfilled it. It says forever. So our first and foremost reason that we have been counting the Omer, that we should celebrate Passover and that we should celebrate Shavuot is because God has commanded that this is a statute that we are to observe forever.
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And as we said in the blessing, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has set us apart by your commandments and has commanded us to count the Omer.
Sukkot and Future Observance
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The Omer is a unit of measurement, and we don't use this as a unit of measurement. We use it as now as just a counting of the 50 days. But this is a time of expectation. And even if we they didn't understand all of why they were supposed to do it, they were to obey. And just in the same way, we are to obey today.
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We're going to continue down and skip down to verse 33, where it says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say, on the 15th day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot.
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I'm not sure exactly yet how to pronounce that, but it is the feast of tabernacles. So that's another feast that is coming up later in the year that we are to observe as a day for the Lord.
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And so I'm going to go ahead and include that in this reading. Because that represents the time when Jesus will come back and live with us here with a thousand year reign.
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And we are told in the Bible that Jesus will also be observing that holiday with us when he returns. So if Jesus is going to be observing that festival, all that appointed time when he returns,
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You better believe he's going to be observing the other ones as well in the same way that he observed them when he was here the first time. And the fact is, is that when he came back, when he rose, that time in between the Bikram, the day of first fruits and Shavuot, this is the time in which he was there with the disciples for 40 days. And we're going to count those days too.
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which is the count part of the counting of the Omer. It is in that time when he was instructing the disciples, no mention is given in any gospel of the fact that Jesus said, you no longer need to observe this festival.
00:26:50
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Had it been so, at least one of them would have mentioned it. But Jesus very clearly told us that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it.
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So it's very important that if we are looking to obey God rather than man-made rules, it's very important to read the Bible and see what does God say about this and to obey God.
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It says on the first day, there is to be a holy convocation.
Holy Convocations and Temple Prophecy
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We're talking about the Feast of Tabernacles now. You are to do no laborious work. So again, be preparing your hearts that for later on this year, if you have missed the Shavuot day, to be prepared for the next observance that is coming.
00:27:40
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For seven days, you're to bring an offering by fire to the Lord, which again, we don't do that part anymore because we don't have the temple. But guess what? It tells us in the Bible that the temple will be rebuilt.
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Why would God care about rebuilding the temple if it wasn't something he wanted done? Let's ask ourselves that question. The eighth day will be a holy convocation to you, and you are to bring an offering by fire to the Lord.
00:28:05
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It is a solemn assembly, and you should do no laborious work. So it's another day of rest that God has given us. Two days. He bookends it at the beginning of the holiday and at the end of the holiday.
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God gives us these days of rest. Verse 37
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which you are to proclaim to be holy convocations to present an offering by fire to the lord a burnt offering a grain offering a sacrifice and drink offering each on its own day besides those of the sabbath the feast of weeks of the lord and besides your gifts all your vows and all your free will offerings which you give to the lord
00:28:55
Speaker
And then it goes on to talk more about the Feast of Tabernacles. So during this time of Shavuot, this is where we bring freewill offering to the Lord that's in accordance with the abundance that God has blessed us with.
00:29:09
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It's not a specified amount besides the wave offering of the bread. This is an extra ah above offering where we look at all God has done for us and blessed us with during those 50 days of counting the Yomer.
00:29:25
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and say, Lord, you have blessed me. Let me bless you as well by giving back to you of a freewill offering. And so this would be a financial gift. It can be a gift of service.
00:29:37
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It can be however you want to give your gift. But it says in the Bible that no man should appear empty handed. So we are all commanded to bring a freewill offering as we are able and as we see fit to bring the Lord.
00:29:55
Speaker
So those are the ways that we are to observe it. So let's look a little bit more in depth about the 40 days. and the giving of the Torah, which is what is being celebrated on that gift of, and also on that day of Shavuot, in addition to being that day of first fruits, it is also commemorated as being the time that God gave the Torah.
00:30:22
Speaker
And we like to simplify it by simply saying the law, but it's more than just rules. It's a way of life. And so it really is a poor English translation to simply call it the law, because really it's more complete when we call it the Torah, because it is, as I mentioned, a way of life.
Moses on Mount Sinai
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It's not just a simply a set of rules like the Ten Commandments. So we are going to turn in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 23,
00:31:10
Speaker
where God gives us a little bit more. This is where he says that no one shall appear empty handed. But actually I'm going to pause for just a moment here and get the right chapter and the right verse.
00:31:24
Speaker
Okay, we're gonna back up actually to Exodus chapter 19. And this is before God gave the commandments to Moses.
00:31:36
Speaker
Before he gave Moses the written tablets, he first called Moses up to the mountain. And this is chapter 19. And it says that this occurred in the third month.
00:31:49
Speaker
So it would this is time for them to travel out of Egypt. And now in three months, it's taken them to travel to Mount Sinai. It says they arrived at the wilderness of Sinai.
00:32:02
Speaker
And they set up camp in the wilderness, right in front of the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Say this to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel.
00:32:16
Speaker
as And he goes on to say that if you listen closely to my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all people. For all the earth is mine. So as for you, you will be to me a holy, to be like a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
00:32:34
Speaker
These are the words which you are to speak to the children of Israel. So Moses went back down the mountain. He called for the elders of the people and put before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him.
00:32:47
Speaker
And the people answered together and said, Everything that the Lord has spoken, we will do. And Moses reported the words back to the people of the Lord. The words of the people back to the Lord.
00:32:59
Speaker
So there was going up and then it was going down. And now Moses has gone back up. And Moses was told by the Lord, it says, the Lord says to Moses, I am about to come to you in a thick cloud so that the people will hear when I speak with you and believe you forever.
00:33:18
Speaker
Then Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothing.
00:33:29
Speaker
be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Okay, so what we're gonna do here is we're going to count out, this is gonna add up to 50 days.
Symbolic Counting to 50 Days
00:33:45
Speaker
Okay, so nothing done by God is by chance. God has divine timing. He works everything together ah just the right time. Even for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear the timing of things that took place with Moses.
00:34:05
Speaker
So it says you are to set boundaries for the people
00:34:10
Speaker
and tell them not to go up onto the mountain or touch the border. And so Moses did that. And it says, in the morning of the third day, there was thundering and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain and the blast of an exceedingly loud shofar.
00:34:27
Speaker
A shofar is a horn made from a ram's horn, a ram's um horn. And all the people in the camp trembled. Now, I will tell you too, that even that blast of the shofar,
00:34:43
Speaker
that announced God's impending arrival also occurs before the Feast of Tabernacles. There is a time when one of the days for the holiday is simply a loud blowing of the shofar.
00:34:59
Speaker
And that we are told in Revelation, is going to be fulfilled by the rapture. When the shofar blows, that is when those who will be taken up into heaven.
00:35:12
Speaker
So whereas in the old covenant, the shofar was blown to announce God's arrival coming down. Now the shofar will announce our rising up.
00:35:26
Speaker
Do you see the completeness in God's work and in God's divine plan?
00:35:33
Speaker
It says, ah and God came down. And in this, ah in the fulfilling with Jesus, on that third day, Jesus rose up from the dead.
00:35:48
Speaker
So you see the, again, the fulfillment there? In the third day, God would be coming to them. Jesus would rise again on the third day Then all the people in the camp trembled.
00:36:01
Speaker
And then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. And they stood at the lowest part of the mountain. Now the entire Mount Sinai was in smoke.
00:36:19
Speaker
Because Adonai had descended upon it in fire, the smoke ascended, which means to go up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
00:36:30
Speaker
And when the so sound of the shofar grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with a thunderous sound. Then Adonai, the Lord God, came down onto Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain.
00:36:47
Speaker
And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up. Then Adonai, the Lord, said to Moses, go down and warn the people lest they break through to see the Lord and many of them die.
00:37:00
Speaker
Even the priests who come near to the Lord must consecrate themselves so that the Lord does not break out against them. And Moses said to ah the Lord, the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai for you are the one who warned us saying set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.
00:37:17
Speaker
Then the Lord told him to go back down. You are to come back up and you are to get Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord or he will break out against them.
00:37:29
Speaker
So Moses went down to the people and told them. So Moses has gone up on the third day and God told him, go back down and bring Aaron and the others with you.
00:37:41
Speaker
Then God spoke all these words.
00:37:45
Speaker
Oh, it says, hold on here. It says, all the people witnessed the thundering and the lightning and the sound of the shofar and the mountain smoking. This is Exodus chapter 20. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
00:38:01
Speaker
And they told Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us or we will die. and love that part. And so God speaks to Moses after he comes back up and he gives Moses the ordinances for the covenant.
00:38:21
Speaker
This is where we have the Torah that is given.
00:38:26
Speaker
And then Moses told him, come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, And Nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel and worship from afar.
00:38:37
Speaker
Moses alone is to approach the Lord, but the others may not draw near, nor are the people to go up with him. So Moses came and told the people all the words of Adonai, as well as all the ordinances.
00:38:50
Speaker
And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do. So Moses wrote down all of the words of the Lord, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar below the mountain, along with 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel.
00:39:07
Speaker
And then it talks about the the doing the sacrifice. And it says, Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant, which Adonai has cut with you in agreement with all of these words.
00:39:21
Speaker
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and 70 of the elders of Israel went up. They saw the God of Israel, and under his feet was something like a pavement of sapphire as clear as the very heavens.
00:39:34
Speaker
Yet he did not raise his hand against the nobles of the children of Israel. So they beheld God and ate and drank. Then in chapter 24, verse 12, it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Come up to me on the mountain and stay there.
00:39:51
Speaker
And I will give you the tablets of stone with the Torah and the law, which I have written so that you may instruct them.
00:40:01
Speaker
So Moses rose up along with his attendant Joshua and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. And to the elders, he said, wait for us here until we come back to you. See, Aaron and Hur are with you and whoever has a dispute should go to them.
00:40:15
Speaker
And when Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it. The glory of the Lord settled upon Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. So we have the three days that they were to prepare for God.
00:40:30
Speaker
Then we have Moses going up with Aaron and they had to wait down below. And then Moses waited for six days. And then on the seventh day, he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
00:40:46
Speaker
And the appearance of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the children of Israel. So Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up onto the mountain.
00:40:57
Speaker
And Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights.
Resurrection and Festival Timeline
00:41:01
Speaker
and forty night So three plus seven is 10. We have the three days that God gave them to wait for it to prepare for his arrival to consecrate themselves.
00:41:14
Speaker
Then we have the seven days until Moses met with him to receive the Torah. And then for 40 days, he was up there with the Lord.
00:41:25
Speaker
So 40 plus seven plus three 50.
00:41:30
Speaker
So when Moses came back down, it had been 50 days. And that, my friends, is where we have the 50 days of the counting of the Yomer. And we see that just as Moses was with God for 40 days, when Jesus rose on Bikarim, and it says that he was with them, so that's three days, and then he was with them for 40 days, so that's 43.
00:41:56
Speaker
So there would have been a week of time in which he told them to wait and receive the Holy Spirit in a few days, because that's what Jesus told them to do.
00:42:09
Speaker
And they would have already been gathered there in great numbers because they were all attending to the holy convocation that God had commanded them to follow.
00:42:20
Speaker
And so this was a pilgrimage time. It is a pilgrimage time that the people of Israel would be going to the temple to worship for Shavuot. And they were observing during those 40 days that Jesus was with them, the counting of the Omer.
00:42:39
Speaker
So as we see, there is a lot of connection in the Old Testament to the new covenant.
00:42:48
Speaker
Without observing these days and understanding the connection, we are losing our roots. We've lost sight of our history and why we are doing what we are doing.
00:43:00
Speaker
We are told to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us. But part of those reasons are the signs and the things that God has given us in the old covenant that he has fulfilled with Jesus in the new covenant.
00:43:16
Speaker
So it's very important. to connect this these two things together. They are not complete, one without the other. And while we do read the old covenant, what we call the new the Old Testament, it's almost as if it's just backstory and it's not really as important as Jesus's teachings in the new covenant or what we call the New Testament.
00:43:41
Speaker
But they are just as important, just like Jesus told us, as I mentioned earlier, that it is like a man who brings treasures out of his storehouse. He brings out both old and new.
00:43:53
Speaker
It is just as important to understand the old covenant and to see the connections and to follow God's signs that point to Jesus.
00:44:05
Speaker
And since we are not commanded that it is okay to not celebrate these, we need to be sure that we are observing them. We are going to now go to the book of act
00:44:19
Speaker
In the book of Acts, actually we're gonna first start in Luke. The book of Luke was written ah by Luke and the book of Acts was also written by Luke. And we are going to go to the end of Luke where we see the accounting of the disciples' eyes being opened on the way to Emmaus.
Jesus' Fulfillment of Prophecies
00:44:51
Speaker
And we're going to see that Jesus was still observing the feast of the unleavened bread. Had it not been expected to be are still to follow the feast of unleavened bread.
00:45:05
Speaker
and the other festivals that are in connection with it, meaning Passover, Bikarim, which is first fruits, and the counting of the Omer for 40 days, 50 days rather, and Shavuot on the 50th day.
00:45:21
Speaker
If it was expected that we didn't need to follow this, then why would Jesus himself follow and observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread when he rose?
00:45:33
Speaker
We like to ask that question, what would Jesus do? Well, in this case, what would Jesus do is he would be following the orders, the command by God ah to obey these appointed times. And he would be observing them if he were here today.
00:45:48
Speaker
Just in the same way, it says that he will ah he will ah not drink of the wine again until he comes again. He will observe the Passover celebration with us in the time that he returns as well.
00:46:03
Speaker
So we look here and in order to have perspective, let's read what happened on the way to Emmaus.
00:46:15
Speaker
Beginning in chapter 13 of Luke 24, it talks about ah the that the disciples' eyes were opened on the way to Emmaus. And it talks about how after he had risen, ah um a man joined them, was walking along with them.
00:46:33
Speaker
And they didn't realize that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them,
00:46:41
Speaker
ah since they were speaking with one another about all the things that had been happening. And while they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
00:46:54
Speaker
Then he said to them, what are these things that you are discussing with one another as you are walking along? And they stood still looking gloomy. Then the one named Cleopas answered and said to him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that happened there in these days?
00:47:11
Speaker
And Yeshua said to them, What kind of things? And they said to him, The things about Jesus from Nazareth, who was a prophet, powerful in deed and word before God and all the people, how the ruling priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they executed him.
00:47:28
Speaker
But we were hoping that he was the one about to redeem Israel. And besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. So they would have been on the road for Bikirim.
00:47:43
Speaker
And they also, but also some of the women among us amazed us. Early in the morning, they were at the tomb. And when they didn't find his body, they came saying they had also seen a vision of angels who said he is alive.
00:47:56
Speaker
Some of those with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.
Road to Emmaus
00:48:03
Speaker
Jesus said to them, Oh, foolish ones, so slow of heart to put your trust in all that the prophets spoke.
00:48:12
Speaker
Was it not necessary for Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, beginning with Moses,
00:48:24
Speaker
just like we began with Moses today. He explained to them the things written about himself in all the scriptures. They approached the village where they were going and he acted as though he were going farther on, but they urged him saying, stay with us for it is nearly evening and the day is already gone.
00:48:42
Speaker
So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that when he was reclining at the table with them, he took the matzah, the unleavened bread, offered bracha, a braca ah blessing, and breaking it, gave it to them.
00:48:58
Speaker
And then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from them. If it were not necessary to observe the feast of unleavened bread, why would Jesus have bothered to do so?
00:49:16
Speaker
They said to one another, didn't our hearts burn within us while he was speaking with us on the road while he was explaining the scriptures to us? And they got up at that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.
00:49:27
Speaker
And they found the eleven and others with them gathered together, saying, the Lord is risen indeed. He has appeared to Simon, who is called Peter. And then they began telling about the events on the road to Emmaus and how he became recognized by them in the breaking of the matzah.
00:49:47
Speaker
And while they were speaking of these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said, Peace to you. Shalom ala him. But they were startled and terrified, thinking they were seeing a ghost.
00:50:00
Speaker
Then he said to them, why are you so And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see.
00:50:12
Speaker
For a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as you see I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. They gave him bread.
00:50:24
Speaker
When he asked, he says, um
00:50:28
Speaker
And when he had said, and but while they were still in disbelief due to joy and wonder, he said to them, do you have anything to eat here? they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence.
00:50:40
Speaker
And then he said to them, these are my words, which I spoke to you while I was still with you. Everything written concerning me in the Torah of Moses. Why would Jesus say that there were things written of him in the Torah of Moses?
00:50:55
Speaker
What was he referring to? the festivals that we are speaking of today. That is what Moses wrote about him concerning in the Torah.
00:51:10
Speaker
And ah the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. So Jesus is telling them that he is fulfilling what Moses gave them in the Torah. When God gave him the Torah, he told him to...
00:51:25
Speaker
to observe the festivals. They were foreshadows of Jesus and Jesus explained that to them. Had it been unnecessary to continue to observe them, he would have said so right then and there, but he did not.
00:51:40
Speaker
So it is written, and then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. So in the same way, let your mind be opened to understanding God's scriptures today.
00:51:52
Speaker
May your eyes be opened and your ears be opened so that you may have eyes to see and ears to hear. And he said to them, So it is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the removal of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.
Ascension and Holy Spirit Arrival
00:52:14
Speaker
And you are witnesses to these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
00:52:25
Speaker
So he was telling them to wait. They were already there to observe the counting of the Omer as well, since they were on better theyre keen um
00:52:36
Speaker
Bikarim. bickerin And then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and he blessed them. Now that blessing, just so you know, is that blessing that is given in Numbers.
00:52:53
Speaker
Chapter 6, verses 23 through 27, where it says, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you are to bless the children of Israel by saying to them, The Lord bless you and keep you.
00:53:09
Speaker
The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord turn his face toward you and grant you shalom In this way they are to place my name over the children of Israel, and so I will bless them.
00:53:24
Speaker
So Jesus himself gave that blessing.
00:53:30
Speaker
And while blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven. And after worshiping him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.
00:53:43
Speaker
Now let's go to Acts chapter one, also written by Luke. And he says, I wrote in the first volume, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach up to the day he was taken up after he had given orders by the Holy Spirit to the emissaries he had chosen.
00:54:02
Speaker
To them, he showed himself to be alive after his suffering through many convincing proofs, appearing to them for 40 days. and speaking about the kingdom of God.
00:54:15
Speaker
Now while staying with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father promised, which he said, You heard from me. For John immersed with water, but you will be immersed in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
00:54:31
Speaker
So after he ascended, that was within the 40 days that he was with them. So he was risen on the third day. He stayed for 40. So now we're at 43. So within seven days, that is when we have Shavuot.
00:54:44
Speaker
Jesus said to them, it is not, oh when they gathered together.
00:54:53
Speaker
no, that's not relevant for this. Okay, then we have,
00:55:01
Speaker
when the Spirit was given to them,
00:55:08
Speaker
which is written about in Acts chapter 2, and it says, When the day of Shavuot had come, That's today, my dear friends. They were all together in one place.
00:55:20
Speaker
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And tongues like fire spread out and appeared to them and settled on each one of them.
00:55:34
Speaker
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to speak out. Now Jewish people were staying in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.
00:55:48
Speaker
Why? Because this is a pilgrimage time. This is Shavuot. This is the time they were expected to be there to bring a freewill offering to God. And they were already there because it was a holy day that they were to have a convocation, an assembly.
00:56:04
Speaker
God is a amazing, saying is he not? Oh, I love this. And I hope you are enjoying learning about Shavuot as much as I am enjoying telling you about it.
00:56:15
Speaker
So, and when the sound came, the crowd the crowd gathered. Do you remember the sound of the Lord when he descended on Mount Sinai? It was loud and he arose with thundering and lightning.
00:56:28
Speaker
And in the same similar way, when the spirit arrived, there was ah there was from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
00:56:42
Speaker
And when the sound came, the crowd gathered. They were bewildered because each was hearing them speaking in his own language, meaning they each heard the disciples speaking in their own language so that they could hear the good news.
00:56:56
Speaker
And they were amazed and astonished saying, who are all these? All these who are speaking, aren't they Galileans? How is it we each hear our own birth language?
00:57:07
Speaker
And others and in verse 13 says, making fun, we're saying they are full of sweet new wine, which doesn't make any sense because what it is is that they they couldn't understand every language. They could only understand their language. So it sounded like they were babbling.
00:57:21
Speaker
So now we are also taken in full circle from the Tower of Babel where God separated man's language and confused it. And now he has brought full circle with the giving of the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues so that each would hear their own language.
00:57:45
Speaker
God brings to full circle everything he has done in the old covenant.
00:57:55
Speaker
But Peter speaks to the Shavuot crowd and he tells them that these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it's only the third hour of the day. And this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel.
Peter's Shavuot Address
00:58:07
Speaker
So the Holy Spirit opens his mouth and gives him this great speech. And we are told that when we have ah cause to speak, God himself will speak through us.
00:58:21
Speaker
The Holy Spirit will tell us what to say.
00:58:25
Speaker
says and It shall be in the last days says, god that i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and your daughters shall prophescy your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my slaves male and female i will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy and i will give wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth beneath blood and fire and smoky vapor.
00:58:51
Speaker
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. I don't know if you are aware or not, but in this year of 2025, in the day, in last night for Shavuot, and in the day before that, we had a geomagnetic storm that came from the sun that gave us the strongest, um,
00:59:15
Speaker
oh aurora borealis, the northern lights that we would see and quite some time. Is it any coincidence that this would arrive on Pentecost, what we would call Shavuot?
00:59:31
Speaker
No, my dear sisters and brothers, it is no coincidence. God tells us that he himself will have wonders in the sky. at that time when Jesus was crucified, we know that it it turned to dark in the midday.
00:59:47
Speaker
We see these signs that God brings, and he is bringing other signs to us at his appointed times as well. It says, and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
01:00:02
Speaker
Praise God. Men of Israel, hear these words. Yeshua of Nazareth, a man authenticated to you by God with mighty deeds and wonders and signs, God performed through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
01:00:18
Speaker
This Jesus given over by God's predetermined plan. This was not by accident. And we don't disagree with that. Nobody's here to convince you that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. You already know that if you're here.
01:00:33
Speaker
but In the same way that God predetermined Jesus to be our savior, he predetermined the Passover to foreshadow his his crucifixion and his covering of sins that he would, that God would pass over us and we should not die, but have eternal life so that we would be raised as to, to never, to be among the first fruits of the living.
01:00:56
Speaker
Jesus was the first fruits of the living. And now we who believe in Jesus will also not perish but have eternal life and have forgiveness of our sins to be given that Holy Spirit that is outpoured.
Observing Biblical Festivals
01:01:14
Speaker
Everything that happened during that holy time that is that was foreshadowed is the reason why we need to be observing this festival today rather than Pentecost or Pentecost Sunday, because it doesn't carry the same weight.
01:01:30
Speaker
We need to return to our roots. We need to repent that we are sorry that we have taken what God's days have been given to us. And we need to repent and be sorry for the fact that we have gone our own way.
01:01:43
Speaker
We have made our own days and called it 50 days and are observing it on a different day rather than on today, the actual day of Shavuot. God's calendar is determined by the lunar cycle.
01:01:56
Speaker
In a time when the world was worshiping the sun, God told us to mark our days by the moon. And that is how Passover days are established. That is how the lunar calendar sets our times and our days.
01:02:10
Speaker
That is how we know when Passover is here, when Bikarim is here, when the counting of the Omer is here, when the Feast of Unleavened Bread is here, when Shavuot is here.
01:02:23
Speaker
That is how we know when God's appointed times come, that they may not be man-made days on a calendar created by man, which revolves around the sun, but that we would follow his commands to be set apart, to be a nation holy to him, a people holy to him, as he has commanded us to be.
01:02:47
Speaker
And if we follow his rules, If we return to him, if we restore his holy days, his appointed times, and we reform our days of worship and worship on the correct days, such as even returning the Sabbath day to Saturday rather than the man-made day of Sunday.
01:03:08
Speaker
which we have created to be a day to remember his is the fact that Jesus rose on a Sunday. It's not the day of the week that matters, my dear sisters and brothers. It's not the day.
01:03:19
Speaker
it is that he rose on Bikarim.
01:03:25
Speaker
We have a day to remember that. And the day of Sabbath is a different day altogether. We can't just combine the days because it is convenient for us. The seventh day of the week, which is Saturday, was given to us as a gift.
01:03:40
Speaker
And we have exchanged that gift like we had some type of a gift receipt and said, no, that's all right. We'll take this one instead. This is better. I like this better. How rude and disrespectful we are as God's children, as God's believers, as believers in Christ, we need to return We need to reform our ways.
01:04:05
Speaker
We need to repent of the ways that we have gone our own way. We have gone astray like sheep. And we need to... ah return, restore.
01:04:18
Speaker
That's the word I was looking for. Repentance, restoration, reformation. And when we do all of these, God will give us revival in the same way that he brought revival in Judah's kingdom when King Hezekiah reinstated the observance of Passover and of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and of the Counting of the Omer, and of Bikarim, and of Shavuot.
01:04:47
Speaker
When he reinstated these holidays, when he restored the temple, when he brought reformation to the people, and they came to the Lord with repentance, God gave them revival.
01:05:03
Speaker
And isn't that something that we pray for? Lord, send us revival. Send us your spirit and in a massive revival. If we truly, truly want God's revival, then we need to be repentant for the ways that we have gone astray.
01:05:19
Speaker
We need to worship God in the way that he has told us to worship him at his appointed times and stop going off on our own ways.
Christian-Jewish Unity in Observance
01:05:33
Speaker
Well, I think I have covered everything for us today in why we as Christians should be observing Shavuot as well as the other appointed times of God.
01:05:45
Speaker
And I hope that you feel cut into your heart that you also will want to obey God's commands that he has set us apart to follow.
01:05:57
Speaker
And that like Hezekiah, we may experience revival by the restoration and the reformation and the repentance of our ways. And I pray that you begin to move in your churches, that you let your pastors know about this video.
01:06:17
Speaker
Talk to them. Let them know that this is the way that the people need to be going. We need to move together as a body of Christ, and we need to be reunited with our Jewish brothers and sisters.
01:06:32
Speaker
There are also our Jewish brothers and sisters who do not yet know Jesus as the Messiah. And we are told that there will be a great outpouring of God's spirit and that many will come to return to God.
01:06:45
Speaker
And so we need to show our unification with them by letting them know that it is through these foreshadowings that they can know with certainty. We need to be able to explain when asked why we have the hope that is within us.
01:07:01
Speaker
that we can see that Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilled everything in the festivals of his appointed times that he gave to Moses so long ago so that their eyes will be opened and their ears will be opened and they will have eyes to see and ears to hear because the great day of our Lord returning is coming.
01:07:25
Speaker
No man knows the day or the hour, but we do know that it will happen. And so we need to be reuniting with our brothers and sisters in Christ who are part of the Messianic Jewish faith.
01:07:39
Speaker
We are not supposed to be a different religion of Christianity. We are supposed to be one in the body of Christ.