Acts Chapter 2:1-5

At the Passover Jesus was crucified according to God's plan. Now the beautiful part of that plan is, guess what, there was people from all over the world that were there for the crucifixion. It wasn't man's plan to crucify Jesus at Passover. As a matter of fact, you may remember the verse when the Jewish leader said, let's not do it during the feast, the people will cause a riot.

So, you know, let's wait until the feast is over. So who actually set the timeline for the crucifixion? Jesus himself. Jesus was in control the whole time. You may remember in the upper room, Jesus turned to Judas and he said, and they were talking about the betrayal.

And then he said, that that you do us, do us quickly. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. I have a few questions for you today. Do you know the biblical feasts? And do you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you daily? And we have as a guest today, DA Brown, one of David McGee's associate pastors.

Welcome, DA. Hey Bob, I'm excited to learn more about the biblical feast too. I've heard some snippets of this teaching with Pastor David personally. And it's very interesting how in the middle of these Jewish feast, we recognize that we are invited to be a part of it, even if we're not Jewish. And these feasts will point us directly to Jesus. It's something interesting. I think everyone listening would love to hear.

Sounds good, brother. And now here's David McGee with his teaching on the Holy Spirit. We are going through the book of Acts. We're in Acts chapter two. Took a few weeks with Acts chapter one.

We're going to take a few weeks with Acts chapter two as well, because there's so much content in here. Just theological statements that we need to understand. We're in a portion of scripture that some people are very uncomfortable with. But since we go verse by verse, we started with Matthew one, one we're going through, so we're not skipping anything.

A lot of people probably would avoid this passage, because it has some stuff that some people are uncomfortable with or may not understand. Acts chapter two, verse one. It says, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Now, what we want to do first is it mentions the day of Pentecost.

And some of you probably think, well, what is that? It started, I guess, here in Acts chapter two. And some of you have heard of the day of Pentecost and think that it started right there after the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

But not so. The day of Pentecost was referring to a Jewish feast. Now, it's interesting. The Lord gave us seven feasts in the Hebrew scriptures in the Old Testament that we were to know about and celebrate. And actually nowhere does He say quit celebrating these at any certain time.

Now, obviously we're not under the law, we're under grace. So there's not the same emphasis on these feasts, but it's a shame that we don't understand these feasts and the relevance that they have for us today. And I wonder, I wonder if we took a poll right now, who in this room could stand up and name, and I'm not going to ask you to do this, but who in this room could stand up and name all seven of the biblical feasts? And yet this is basic, really Christianity 101 from our Jewish roots. Now, if you're taking notes, or maybe even if you're not taking notes, find a pen and find a piece of paper and jot these seven feasts down. You'll be quizzed at the end of the service today.

No, I'm kidding. Here's the seven feast. Passover, unleavened bread, the feast of first fruits, Pentecost, which is also referred to as the feast of weeks, or Shavut, Rosh Hashanah, the feast of trumpets, which is the Jewish new year, Yom Kippur, which is the day of atonement, and Sukkot, which is the feast of booze or tabernacles.

Some of these you may notice have more than one biblical name, and that can get kind of confusing, especially because Pentecost sometimes is referred to as first fruits as well, and I'll explain that a little more today. So those are the seven feasts. Now, there's an interesting distinction between these two feasts in that there's spring feasts and then there's fall feasts. Now, it's not spring fall as we think of spring fall. It's a little different calendar, but they divide up this way. The spring feasts are Passover, unleavened bread, feast of first fruits, and Pentecost. Now, that's important because these four feasts, these spring feasts, if you will, have all had their biblical fulfillment.

Here's what I mean by that. Passover, which started in Egypt, if you remember, is when they marked the doorpost and the angel of death passed over that house. That was a picture or a type. If you remember, they took the blood of a lamb and put it on the doorpost. Well, that was symbolic of the Lamb of God that was coming. If you remember, John the Baptist introduced Jesus by saying, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, if you were a Jewish man or woman standing there at that moment, you understood the reference that he was making to the Passover Lamb.

So the Passover, and we know that Jesus died on the Passover, so that's been fulfilled with the death of Jesus, with the Passover Lamb. The unleavened bread speaks about Jesus being without sin, without leaven. Leaven's always a picture of sin, always a picture of sin in the Bible. If you know the parables, you're sitting there going, well, no, actually there's one parable in there that says the kingdom of God is like unto leaven, and it leavens the whole lump, and so that's a good thing.

No, I don't have time to go into that parable, but it's not a good thing. It's saying that evil and sin will come into the church body, and then if you remember, it talks about the fowls of the air and stuff, but I digress. And then the Feast of First Fruits was the day that Jesus was resurrected, so we have the fulfillment of the Feast of First Fruits in the resurrection of Jesus. If you remember in 1 Corinthians, it says that Jesus, who was the first fruits of the resurrection, we have the fulfillment of first fruits in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, I can't go completely into the feast this morning, but I want to give you some of this information. If you want some more, you can go to the website Leviticus 23, which goes through the seventh feast. So these spring feasts have been fulfilled. None of the fall feasts have been fulfilled in their biblical fulfillment. Okay, so those four have been fulfilled of the spring feast. The fall feasts have yet to have their biblical fulfillment. Now, that's going to become important as we go through here and we talk a little bit more about Pentecost.

So there's a feast primer, if you will, and we're going to talk more about Pentecost in here. Now, it mentions that they are all with one accord. Does it mean that they agreed on everything? No, it doesn't. Does it mean they all dressed alike? No, it doesn't. Does it mean that they all looked similar?

No, it doesn't. Does it mean that they were united in purpose and willing to overlook their differences, to reach out to a lost and dying world? Absolutely. They were willing to do that. And you know what?

We should be willing to do the same. And we've gotten into this thing where we think a Christian is supposed to look a certain way, act a certain way, and like a particular style of music. So it takes a lot of variety to make up the body of Christ. And you know what? That's part of the power.

That's part of the power. Because you know what? There's people here that are uniquely gifted and qualified to minister to other people out there. Now, perhaps you're a businessman. You know what? You are uniquely qualified to minister to other businessmen. Maybe in your past you've struggled with drugs and alcohol and you've been set free from that.

Guess what? You are uniquely qualified to minister to somebody that struggles with that now. So it's an awesome thing that as the body of Christ grows and bonds together that we become more able and more strengthened to minister to other people. Now, two of these feasts were technically the feast of first fruits. There was the feast of first fruits. That was the earlier harvest, the barley harvest. The day of Pentecost was another first fruit feast, but it was the wheat harvest. Now, in case you were saying first fruits and you're not sure what that is, what they would do is before they would harvest the barley or the wheat for themselves, they would take a tenth of it and take it to the temple before they ever enjoyed or ate any of it.

Those are the first fruits and we're supposed to give the first fruits to the Lord. Now, verse 2, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and one sat upon each of them. There's some, obviously, some supernatural stuff going on.

I guess Johnny Carson was, that's some weird stuff. That's some really wacky, wacky things there, but they're recorded for us in the Bible right here. So what does it mean?

What in the world's going on? Well, let me explain first. The Holy Spirit is often symbolized in one of three ways in the Bible, fire, water, and wind. You'll see that a lot. You'll see the Holy Spirit symbolized in the water, fire, and wind. And so here we see these tongues of fire, if you will, appearing on each one of them. Obviously, this is a supernatural thing because this is a supernatural book. We need to understand that. There's things in here that make you scratch your head. There's things in here that might make you uncomfortable sometimes.

And you know what? I think God intended it that way. You see, when you go through this book and you see it, it talks about blind people seeing, and lame people walking, and deaf people hearing, and mute people speaking, and dead people coming back to life. That's supernatural stuff. And I think because the church in part has put a disclaimer on all that's supernatural, many people have come to the church looking for this supernatural power, have not found it, and then they've gotten involved in Satanism, and witchcraft, and the other side of the supernatural power. So whether we're comfortable with it or not is really not the issue. It has nothing to do with it.

The reality is it's in the book, and we have to look at what is being said and figure out what it's talking about. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a couple minutes to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Enka, High Point, Lexington, Mount Olive, Summerfield, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and also Dickinson, North Dakota. Lord, we thank you for everyone who lives in these cities. We pray that your Holy Spirit would draw them unto you even right now, that people would have the faith to say yes, with no boundaries on what you're wanting to do in their life. We pray for the leaders in these cities, that you would give them wisdom and discernment, and that they would work together, Father, and that they would look to your word for answers supernaturally on how to lead where you've called them. Lord, we pray that people will get plugged into churches and begin to serve with the gifts that you've given them, Father, and that they would be a blessing to other people in the same way that you've blessed them.

Lord, we thank you for these cities. We're expecting you to do great things, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse four says, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, the issue of tongues, and it's interesting, is one of the most divisive issues in evangelical Christianity. There is a group that says tongues are bad. They're demonic. They are no longer a gift of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit doesn't give gifts anymore.

The whole ministry has changed. Then there's the other side that says you're not saved unless you speak with these other tongues. Now, what we want to do here is have a biblical balance of these things. Now, from this verse, we can see a couple things. Number one, the gift of tongues was from God. More specifically, it was from the Holy Spirit.

If you want to argue with that verse, man, go to the Lord and argue with him about it, but that is what the verse says. Now, part of what we need to figure out is how that relates to the church today, and we'll probably cover some of that today. We'll probably cover more of it towards the end of the chapter when Peter comes back to talking more about the Holy Spirit, but I want you to know something else. This gift that they had at this time, it was not used in a showy way.

It was not used in some wacky circus type of atmosphere, although it was obviously a supernatural gift. Now, we see that that God did this, the Holy Spirit filled them, and that they spoke in this tongue. And we'll talk more about the first-generation church, and a lot of people say, well, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer for today.

We're going to get into that, but I want you to remember this. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. We're commanded. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 says, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, we've been talking about this for several weeks, and we covered another verse where Jesus said, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for Him? And anytime you want to be filled with the Spirit, you can ask the Lord to fill you with the Spirit. It's a constant thing, okay, because you know what? When it comes in terms of the Holy Spirit, instead of deep theological terms, let me put it like this.

You leak, okay? So you get filled with the Holy Spirit, and then you leak, and then so you got to get refilled with the Holy Spirit. So I believe there is an event subsequent or after salvation where you are filled with the Spirit, and I also believe that the believer needs to constantly be asking the Lord to fill you with the Holy Spirit. So again, that's a biblical balance because this group that says the Holy Spirit no longer gives gifts, they would say, yes, you need to be filled every day with the Holy Spirit. I agree with that. This group over here would say, well, there's that one-time event where you're filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit, and then that's it. Well, I agree with that event, but I disagree with the fact that there's an overemphasis on that one event.

You need to be filled every day. Amen? I mean, we all should be able to agree on this stuff because it's right there. Verse five, and there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven. Do you know why people from everywhere were in Jerusalem? God is very wise.

Here's the thing. We talked about the feast, and three of those feasts were what biblically is termed solemn feasts. In other words, three out of seven feasts, the males were required from all over the world to go to Jerusalem for that feast. So that's why at the day of Pentecost, which was one of those three, you have the day of Pentecost or the feast of weeks where people were required to be in Jerusalem. You had unleavened bread, which Passover kicks off the unleavened bread week, so they would be there for that time, and then the feast of booze or tabernacles. They would also be required to come to Jerusalem. Now, what's interesting is Passover and unleavened bread. Now, I mentioned that at the Passover, Jesus was crucified according to God's plan.

Now, the beautiful part of that plan is, guess what? There was people from all over the world that were there for the crucifixion according to God's plan. It wasn't man's plan to crucify Jesus at Passover. As a matter of fact, you may remember the verse when the Jewish leaders said, let's not do it during the feast. The people will cause an uproar, cause a riot.

They were worried about having a riot. So let's wait until the feast is over. So who actually set the plan for the crucifixion? Jesus himself. Jesus was in control the whole time. You may remember in the upper room, Jesus turned to Judas and he said, and they were talking about the betrayal, and then he said, that that you do us, do us quickly. And at that, Judas went out, went to the high priest and set up the ultimate betrayal of Jesus.

Now, a couple more things about this Pentecost. It's called Feast of Weeks. It's called Feast of Weeks for an important reason. From the day of first fruits, it was seven sevens the day after the seven sevens.

Now, what I mean by that, seven is an important biblical number. It was seven weeks or 49 days, seven times seven. And then it was the day after that, which was the 50th day. So 50 days after the day of first fruit was the day of was the day of Pentecost. And so that put it on Sunday. Now it's interesting because one of the things that happened at the Feast of Weeks was instead of just unleavened bread, like was used in every other feast, there were two loaves.

There was a unleavened loaf and there was a leavened loaf. Now, leavened pitcher of sin also can be used as us as Gentiles that did not know God, that were separated by our sin, not even looking for God, combined into the church. And that's what you see begin to happen at the Feast of Pentecost.

That's gonna be a few chapters before it goes out into the world. But now, another interesting thing that they did during this feast is they read through the Book of Ruth. Why did they read the Book of Ruth?

Well, for a number of reasons. Number one, the Book of Ruth talks about a harvest. It talks about a Gentile coming into the kingdom. It talks about the lineage of Jesse, of David, of Jesus. See, the whole book is connected. So now, 50 days later, everybody is back in Jerusalem and the Lord picks that time for this occurrence to happen.

What does that suggest to you and what possible personal relevance could it have for you today? Well, the life lesson here, God's timing is always perfect. God's timing is always perfect. Man's timing, again, was to crucify Jesus, not on the Passover. God's plan was to crucify Jesus on the Passover.

The disciples probably would have said, well, give me the Holy Spirit so we can get on with doing this business. And the Lord said, no, wait. Why? Because he had his perfect timing.

Why? Because 15 nations were about to hear what is to be the first gospel teaching after the resurrection of Jesus. And from this place, they will fan out to all over the world. God's timing is perfect. Now, when I say his timing is perfect, what do I mean by that? Well, let me tell you what I don't mean. I don't mean that God's timing is gonna fit in with your timing.

See, because a lot of times we pray according to our timetable, don't we? Lord, give me patience now. That's your timetable. Lord, give me this other job now. Give me this now.

Give me this new house now. Come on, God, what are you doing? God is much more interested in changing you than your circumstances and your situations.

And God will change you, then he'll change your circumstances and situations according to his perfect timing. So, Lord, when you can rest in this, that God knows what he's doing. I don't know if you've ever heard that little joke that, you know, this guy goes to God and he goes, God, is it true that 1,000 years is like a day to you? And the Lord said, yes. And he said, so, like a million dollars is like a dime to you or something, I guess. And the Lord said, yes, that's true, my son.

And the man said, well, Lord, can I have a dime? And God said, I'll tell you tomorrow. God is on a timetable that is uniquely his. It's not ours. When you get in a moment where you feel out of rest or you've been out of shape, then chances are you're not trusting in God's timetable.

His timetable is perfect. We see it here. And that's the rub. When we get into those moments and we get out of rest because God is not operating on our timetable, we're not trusting him.

And I know it's difficult. I tend towards the same thing. But you can trust the Lord. And we often think, well, he's not moving fast enough in our life. Or maybe we think he's moving too fast in our life. Or we look at somebody else and we think, well, God, you're not changing him quick enough.

And we look at others and go, what, God, are you changing them so quick? God is on his own timetable. Now, the feast of weeks, Pentecost, was always on the first day of the week, always on a Sunday, always, because it came in the week because it came after the day of the first fruit, which was the Shabbat, the Sabbath, which was the Saturday is when the Shabbat is. Well, why is that important, Pastor Dave? We have the resurrection and you have the feast of weeks occurring on the first day of the week, which was Sunday. That's important because if you watch Discovery Channel or the Learning Channel or the History Channel, a lot of these people say it was under Constantine that the church began to worship on Sunday. It's not true.

It's not so. Do you understand that the Discovery Channel, History Channel, Learning Channel, all those are not infallible? I have watched things that were blatantly misrepresented on those channels. But when they misrepresent things, I'm like, that's not right. And I saw this misrepresented just last week that we all started worshiping the sun god, you know, under Constantine.

No, he didn't. The first day of the week was starting right here and going back to the resurrection. We need to understand that. Let me balance it out. There was a de-emphasis of the Jewish Sabbath and the Jewish feast under Constantine.

Part of the reason that very few people in here knew how to name all seven feasts, you can go back to the time of Constantine when he very intentionally began to separate Jewishness from Christianity and then continue. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven? You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

So congratulations friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge. Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the book of Acts.