Main Street Church Sermon (17.10 - )

The festival today is No one's keeping track, huh? Feast of Weeks.

So when you're at the Feast of Weeks, this is what you eat. That's a blinz, yeah. Actually, you know, when I if I show you what's inside of it. There, see, so it's got a cheese filling.

So, what do the following foods have in common? You've got cheese blintzes. Uh you've got uh And they all have in common? Derry, see we're we're sharp today. We can quit while we're ahead.

Yeah, that's really great.

So yeah, we're looking at the Feast of Weeks today. And uh the reason that dairy is uh a big deal in the Feast of Weeks has almost nothing to do with the Feast of Weeks.

Well, and you know, and there's a I I have to keep qualifying the fact that the The seven appointed feasts and the two extra ones we talked about earlier, they all have kind of a traditional overburden, I call them. You know, over the generations, so many generations, literally thousands of years, a lot of things have been associated with the feasts that are extra-biblical, but they're interestingly extra-biblical. This one, the foods are always connected in some way, except this one isn't really. It's there because of this verse right here from Deuteronomy 11: The Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring a land flowing with. Milk and honey.

So it's the milk of the milk and honey celebration.

So that's largely why.

Now this is a strangely named feast, the feast of weeks.

So again, like last time, we were at the Feast of Trumpets. And it's a mystery in many respects. Today, the Feast of Weeks is something of a mystery, and we're going to try and piece it together again because these feasts are meant to teach us about something, not only Israel, but us as well.

So, we're going to look at the today, why Feast of Weeks.

So, here's the big picture. We look at every this is the big circular calendar, you know, the calendar, the 12 months in the year. And we are starting at the end of the calendar year, the 12th month. We're at Purim, so we're that's where you celebrate Esther's story and all that kind of stuff. Remember, that's great stuff.

Actually, we didn't talk about foods at Purim. Purim uh has a variety of foods, but the most famous one I remember is Hamentash and Cookies. I don't know if you know Hamentash. I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood, so uh we had these very strangely shaped Kind of triangular cookies. That had like a fruit daub in the middle of them.

If you were a purist, it was prune. But many times it was very so. That was Hamintashin's. And then when we got around to Hanukkah, the dedication, the feast of dedication to the temple, because oil is such a big deal about keeping the lights going in the celebration of the story of Hanukkah, then oil, anything fried in oil, is good on Hanukkah. Still, my reigning food celebration is Hanukkah because of that.

Great memories as a kid as well. And then, as we move through, we have the Feast of Booth, Sukkot, where you built these temporary structures to remember that you lived in temporary structures after you left Egypt. Remember that? Then we moved on down here. We're still in the seventh month to the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.

And then from Yom Kippur we went to Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah, or actually Rosh Hashanah, which means the head of the year, New Year.

So it's again, it's one of the interesting traditional overlays to the biblical instructions about Feast of Trumpets is the fact that it's a new year. And those who are observant about this calendar diagram, notice that the new year is in the start of the seventh month. And we talked about that some last week. It's actually a good addition, but it's not going to make sense to us until we finish all the feasts, and you'll see why. But yes, the beginning of the seventh month, the first day of Tishrei, the first day of Tishrei is Rosh Hashanah.

It's the head of the month. It's New Year, but it's. biblically the Feast of Trumpets. And we looked at that as well.

Okay, so now we're pushing back in these. I added here just to kind of give you an idea that these seven appointed feasts, which are stipulated by God as they left Egypt.

Okay, God says that as you are becoming a nation out of captivity, I want you to do these seven events through the year.

So I'm calling these the appointing feasts. And these I'll say in a very kind of technical way, they're an integrated message system. Oh, well, they're meant to tell you something. They're meant to tell you something.

So that's why we're studying them. And the sequence of them is important. The time of the year is important, which is why I always show it on this calendar. The time of year is very important on these. And we won't see the full picture of why the sequence and why the timing of the year is important until we get to all of them and we stand back and look.

You'll see it, it'll just drop out of the air, you'll see it.

So, today we're moving further up in the calendar year, past the seventh month, all the way up into the third month. And in the third month, what we have is the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot.

Okay, and this year it's going to be on June 1st. The Jewish calendar this year, this will be on June 1st.

So, this feast is always in the very late spring, it's just before summer starts. Ah, Feast of Weeks.

Now, why the Feast of Weeks?

Well, Feast of Weeks is one of the is well let me think about it. It's the only one of the feasts that is not pinned to a specific day of a month on the Jewish calendar. It it's not.

So then how do you determine when you're going to do it?

Well, It's so much time after the ones in the first month. And we'll see that as it comes up. Basically, God says you need to do the feast of weeks after a week. of weeks A week is how many days in a week?

So a week of weeks is seven weeks. There you go. It's a week of weeks. It's actually the day after. It's the 50th day of the week of weeks.

So it's seven calendar weeks after one of the events in the first month. And we'll see that when we get there.

So it is interesting. It's not pinned on month.

Well, that's odd. But having it being pinned seven weeks after something in the first month says it has a vital kind of an umbilical cord connection to the thing that it's coming from.

So that's what it's trying to emphasize, is the fact that this is a natural outcome of something that will happen in one of the first feasts. And we'll see that as we go along.

So, Feast of Weeks, Shavuot. That's what we're doing.

So, what we always do, we go to the key verses. Leviticus 23 is where the seven appointed feasts are laid out by God as they leave Egypt, as they become a nation, the laws are given, all that stuff. God says, Okay, here's the seven feasts.

So, what does it say about this one? Interestingly enough, Out of all the seven appointed feasts, this feast takes up more page area than all the other celebrations do. Even more than Passover, which is what we're going to get to as the first one.

So let's take a look. Leviticus 23.

So you shall count seven full weeks, a week of weeks. From the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, and we'll see that when we get to the first month. You'll count fifty days, so it's the day after the seven times seven. 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you'll present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. Oh, so.

So it's a grain offering, right?

Well, it turns out in in Israel for winter wheat, winter wheat actually becomes mature and harvested in the last week or two of spring.

So this shows up this year on June 1st.

So that kind of works right. It's a couple weeks short of the end of spring.

So it's a grain offering. What kind of grain?

Well, when you go to Exodus 34, you'll observe the feast of weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest.

So this is the wheat harvest.

Now, there were two grain harvests in Israel, wheat and barley. Barley happens a couple months before this, and it will be part of one of the next feasts we look at after this, that precedes it.

So, this is the wheat harvest.

So, here's the question: as we're trying to answer what Feast of Weeks is about and why it is important, is this the case? Is this the real foundational reason why it's celebrated? That we are celebrating that God has given us a harvest. And so, we take some of that harvest and we use that to thank God. Is that what this is?

Because. Many, many pagan cultures who have celebrations, religious celebrations on their calendars. Almost all of those celebrations are tied to either military victories. or successful harvests. Planting and harvest.

Like many of them are very agrarian-oriented. You'll have a celebration as you plant your seeds and you pray for fertility and for rains and stuff like that.

So you have a big celebration there. And then when the harvest comes, you thank the gods that they have given you food from the ground.

So that's really common. Is that what we're talking about here? Are we talking about celebrating? God's faithfulness to them in giving them a harvest. I don't know.

Let's keep looking and see.

Okay, but that would be my first shot because remember, there's a mystery here. We're trying to understand. A feast of weeks. It's just very odd in that sense.

So maybe it is just a grain harvest.

Okay, we're going to do our investigations. Further on in Leviticus 23, in the big section of Leviticus 23, it tells us how to do this. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved. Uh made of two-tenths of an ephah, that's a measure of five. Flour, and they shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.

Okay, so it sounds kind of like a grain harvest celebration, but there's some oddities here. One of them is. Two loaves of bread. Why two loaves of bread? As kind of a plot spoiler, that will be a central part of the mystery solved.

two loaves of bread. But it's bread, so that's the harvest. And he calls this a first fruits kind of thing, which is when the harvest happens, you know, and the grain, the grain is there and it's harvested, you're just so excited. You have invested so much time in this harvest. Remember, you reaped the previous year's grain so you could plant it then earlier.

In this case, in the wintertime, you put it in the ground, you cross your fingers, you hope that the ground doesn't destroy it, but that it actually germinates and it makes more wheat, right? And then it grows up and you watch it slowly over the weeks and the months as this thing comes up. You get excited about the shoots. And then all of a sudden, boom, then there's grains on the heads of these shoots, but then you can't harvest it yet until it all dries out and then wait until the head kind of leans over. That's how you know it's time to pick.

Pick grain is when the when it's so dry that the head leans over, then you can harvest it. And then and then you harvest it, then you have to knock those seed heads out of that stick, right? You have to knock that out, have to knock those babies out. That's not the end of your work. Then you have to take the seed heads which you've collected and you need to knock the chaff off of them.

Because they're covered with a cellulose wrapper that you don't want to eat.

So somehow you have to get that off. How do you get that off of all these tiny little grains? You rub 'em until they get loose, then you throw 'em up in the air. Why you throw 'em up in the air? If there's a slight breeze, shh as you throw 'em up in the air, the heavier grains come down and that chaff blows off to the left.

and what falls to the ground. Finally is what you're gonna eat. But then You can't eat the grains just like that. You can try, but it's not very productive.

So now you gotta grind it into flour. Right?

So, you grind it into flour between two pieces of stone. Hopefully, animals are helping you to do that work. I mean, that's still a lot of work.

So, now you have this powdered wheat. And you're still not done? It's not like you're gonna lick your finger and eat the flour. No, that doesn't get you very far.

So, what do you do? You make bread. You make bread. So finally when the bread's done, you're going, ah. Finally.

The first fruits excitement is the fact that you have actual food in your mouth from this. It's been so long and so arduous and so much work.

Now, we don't live in agrarian economies, most of us.

Well, Pete, you guys do. By choice. But I mean, for most of us, that cycle of that work is not really apparent to us. I mean, we're not, we go to the store and there's always food there. But in these cycles, it is an exciting thing to invest so much work and really exciting when it comes to fruition when you have some bread that you can eat and you go, yes.

This is a great deal. We used to wait when we lived in Spokane, we had a whole bunch of fruit trees planted on our property, and we'd wait for those fruit trees to come and bear.

Now, the fruit trees don't bear in the at the end of spring. They always bear at the very end of the warm year. I mean, almost like on the verge of Winter, pretty much. I mean, it takes that long for them to do it.

So you'd wait all that time. You'd see these tiny little fruits growing, and they get bigger, bigger, bigger, and you get excited. You get excited, you get excited. And then all of a sudden, you know, you taste one, you go, yes, it's perfect, it's perfect. Let's get them all off.

You pick them all off the tree. You know, we had grapes, we had apples, we had some pears. And so we would pull these babies off, and then you would take them in the kitchen and you'd cut them open, and you'd find they're full of worms. Kind of takes the edge off that excitement. But you can work around it.

You can work around it. You can figure out what to do. And next year, you kick your husband to go out and spray the plants. Um But I mean Harvest is a rhythm and an excitement that we don't share anymore.

So that's why this is a first fruit. It's like, yes. The first fruits are just, oh, so exciting. Just really so exciting.

So maybe it is still just a harvest festival with the first fruits.

So that's looking pretty good.

Now, Leviticus goes on and tells us more, because remember I said Leviticus 23, the foundational place for the seven appointed feasts? It has a lot of page devoted to this particular feast.

So let me show you what's there. After the two loaves, that's for your parent. Then here's where he goes after that. And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish and one bull from the herd and two rams. And they shall be burnt offering to the Lord.

And for the grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And you'll have one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice or peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord with the two lambs.

Okay, well, this is not untypical. In fact, the other feasts always have symbolic sacrifices that are done in the temple. And here as well, where you take, again, the principal two loaves as the first fruits of this grain offering and other blood offerings as well. But then that's the end of what it tells us about Leviticus 23, about Feast of Weeks. That's all it says.

So at this point, We have to conclude, what is Feast of Weeks all about? And why is it called feast of why is it called feast of wheat? instead of feast of weeks. Yeah, that's a I'd like to know the answer to that.

So that's hanging out there. Also, it In all the other feasts, as you look at the other feasts on the seven appointed calendar feasts. They're not as agrarian-oriented, sort of, and I will have to qualify that, but not as much as what pagan religions do, where they say, You know, we need to celebrate the agrarian calendar.

So for me to stop and say this is a celebration of the agrarian calendar, just you know, the wheats here, that's exciting. And that is exciting. That is really genuinely, authentically exciting. But in the seven appointed feasts, there's always a deeper meaning that's going on.

So I think maybe it goes beyond just this.

So if your suspicions as a Bible Sherlock Holmes is I need to find out more. Let's go find out more and see if there's more about this we can figure out than from just Leviticus 23. But so far, so far, it's just a wheat harvest, but it's a wheat harvest with two loaves.

Now that's a good question to answer as well. If you remember back to what's inside the temple, There are 12 loaves of bread inside the temple. Remember that? First in the tabernacle and then temple. And there was a loaf that represented every one of the tribes.

And there was a table that had this showbread, is what it was called, that was inside the temple. And those would be regularly replenished inside. But the symbolism of the loaf there was a tribe or a group of people. And there were 12 groups of people for 12 tribes. It represented people.

Why would a loaf of bread represent people?

Well, we saw last week, one of the passages we looked at, remember when we talked about this in-gathering, the bringing together of Jews from all over the world? God characterized it in that passage by talking about the fact that you all are like little, little, little seeds of wheat that are scattered all over the world, and a day is coming where I'm going to gather you all together, and that's going to be a harvest.

Now, he says this in the Old Testament.

So, in a real sense, the harvest. when you go to a spiritual direction isn't just about wheat popping up out of the ground. It's about people. Ooh, and a loaf is a group of people. Ah, this is a really strong symbology to the Old Testament.

So if we're looking for more spiritual understanding about what this is, I mean, going beyond just a grain harvest celebration. Could we say that these two loaves represent two groups of people?

So we'll just hold that as our question for a second. If that's the case, that's fascinating. But again, why two and who are the two groups? Why wouldn't there be 12 for the 12 tribes like there is inside the temple? Why two?

And who are those two if they represent groups of people? Hmm.

So see, as you read these things, The mysteries and the questions start rising up. And as a good friend of mine and one of my old mentors used to say, the best part of Bible study is asking the passage questions. You have to ask questions of the passage. And so these things come to your mind.

Okay, God. I can see a loaf being a group of people, but why are there two loaves? Why are there two groups? And who are these two groups? And why is it so central?

Why is it so central to the celebration of the Feast of Weeks? Who And why?

Okay, well let's do a little bit more investigation. Actually, there are three different contributions to the idea of Feast of Weeks, not just what's in Leviticus 23, which we read about the wheat harvest. There's other places as well. And so let's look at some of those.

So let's go over to the second section right here, and this is what you find. Exodus 19. 19.

So remember, this is all the story about leaving Egypt and going into the promised land. Exodus 19.1, on the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day, on that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

Now, what does this have to do with anything? There's no Feast of Weeks there, Jim. Yes, but it's in exactly the same month. and almost at exactly the same time. It looks like it.

It says on the third new moon, well remember, the months are moon months, and the months start on the new moon.

So this is in the third month of the calendar year, which is when The Feast of Weeks'. Ah, so maybe we ought to tie these together just a little bit. Because as they're doing the Feast of Weeks, They're also remembering the fact that when Israel left Egypt, they found themselves on the verge of Sinai. at exactly the same time of year. And what happened in Sinai on Mount Sinai?

The law. Hmm.

Ah Huh. Ah Feast of Weeks Wheat harvest. Two loaves. Giving of a law. Don't have it yet?

I don't either. We need to keep going. Here's what else goes on, Exodus 19, verse 2. There Israel encamped before the mountain, remember Mount Sinai, while Moses went up to God. And the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel.

So this is a place on which God speaks to Moses and then Moses to the people. And of course, remember the Ten Commandments come that way.

So, um I want to highlight this in passing because we'll need this in second. Verse 16. On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, which means attention, remember?

Okay, attention everybody, everyone pay attention.

So that all the people in the camp trembled. All the people in the camp trembled.

So I just want you to get the scene. Sinai is there. Moses goes up to the top of it. He talks to God right there. He receives the Ten Commandments.

But the people are not completely unaware of what's happening at the top of the mountain because what's happening at the top of the mountain looks like a firestorm. I mean, it's crazy, it's bright, it's flashing, it's lightning, it's huge sounds, huge sounds.

So much so that the people at the base of the mountain, the rest of Israel, they're just trembling. Because here's the presence of God. We forget about this when we talk about the giving of the Ten Commandments because this was so bad, in fact, that the people were just terrified about the presence of God being so close, even though He's at the top of the mountain, and poor Moses has to go in the middle of that.

So he goes up to this firestorm, this loud firestorm up at the top, and that's where he's communing with God against the Ten Commandments. I just want you to remember that. That'll be important in a second.

So, if you go to chapter 20, very famous, Exodus 20, very famous. If someone on the street asks you, where can I read the Ten Commandments? Exodus 20. Always, so here's the giving of the Ten Commandments. God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. And then he goes on and talks about the Ten Commandments. And you're familiar with those, so I won't show you all of those. But here we have in almost right smack dab on top of the timing of the Feast of Weeks. They're remembering that God deliberately told us at this time of the year, this is when the law was given.

That's fascinating.

So we add to our two loaf issue. This understanding, this remembrance that the law was given to Israel at exactly the same time of year. And in Hebrew cultures, it's called Matan Torah. Torah is the five books of Moses in the beginning, Genesis, X number of Judah Army.

So to this very day, if you ask a modern Jew about this particular celebration, the Feast of Weeks, They will talk about, well, this is when Moses received the Ten Commandments and they were brought to Israel. And so that'll be central. That'll be very central. Depending on how Orthodox a Jewish person is you're talking to, this will be the central issue. Like, for instance, as we've talked about previously, on the first day of the seventh month, trumpets Most Jews won't talk about the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month.

They'll talk about Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year, New Year's. They'll talk about New Year's. It's because of some of the ambiguity about what the Old Testament meanings were to these things. In the same way, here, when you talk about Feast of Weeks, many times a modern Jew, usually less Orthodox, will refer to it as the commemoration of when the law was given to Israel. But that's not what was specified in Leviticus 23.

It was the wheat harvest.

So again, this is one of the I want to say an addition, maybe an expansion of the idea of this time of month and the celebration about the fact that this is the law being given to Israel because God's very deliberate. He's very deliberate in Exodus to tell us exactly when, on the calendar, the law was given.

So it's not wrong for the rabbis to say, so we need to celebrate that as well, because that's a really big deal.

Okay, so we'll accept that. We'll accept that as, yeah, okay. It still doesn't seem to clarify. Where Leviticus 23 says, it's a wheat harvest.

Well, yeah. And it's a two-loaf wheat harvest.

Well, what? And what does that mean? Shouldn't it be a 12 month? 12 loaf?

Okay. And then you have also added on top of that the idea that this is when the law is given to Israel. My tantro.

So I said there was three places we can go. Let's do that one too. And then we can get some understanding. What's the third one? X2.

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Pentecost. Pentecost is the word that means fifty. And when we talk about Feast of Weeks, it's the day after the seven weeks transpire. 49 days and seven weeks.

The 50th day is the Feast of Weeks celebration. Pentecost. is that thing.

So when we read Pentecost in the New Testament, it's the Feast of Weeks. It's exactly, it's not just kind of coincident. It is actually, in a different word, the Feast of Weeks. It's seven weeks plus one, it's 50. Pentecost means 50.

So when we have this event happening in Acts 2.

Now, if you remember, Jesus has been crucified, buried, raised from the dead, appeared to people for over 40 days, and now the apostles are waiting for instructions about what to do post-resurrection, right? They're waiting for that. And so as they're waiting, Jesus tells them, stay in Jerusalem, stay in Jerusalem.

Well, Jesus was crucified somewhere around Passover. And this is seven weeks, kind of, sort of a plus or minus. We'll see that next time from Passover.

So, sure enough, they've waited. They've waited in Jerusalem after the resurrection of Jesus. They've waited the seven weeks until they get. to the Feast of Weeks. And so now God, in a very deliberate way, is trying to put us out of our misery in solving this mystery.

By putting what's going to happen next, right smack dab on the Feast of Weeks. This is not an accident.

Now on the one hand, it's very pragmatic on God's part. Because in a moment here, Peter's going to get up at Pentecost and make a profound statement about who Jesus is.

So it'd be nice to do that when there's people in town, right?

Well, if you noticed our calendar before, it had a little arrow tip on the day, which means that it was one of the three times in the entire year calendar that you had to go to Jerusalem. You had to.

So on the time of Pentecost, everyone had to come back. It was one of the three biggies. You had to be in town.

So what better time to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus and him as the Messiah?

So that's just pragmatically a great plan on God's part. But that's not the only part of the plan for why he put this announcement about who Jesus is on the Feast of Weeks. He's connecting it to the Feast of Weeks. In the same way, that the crucifixion of Jesus Was coincident to the sacrifice lamb that was central to Passover. That's not an accident.

So, see, God, this is an integrated information system. He's telling us stuff.

So, why would he drop Pentecost and what happens on Pentecost on top of the Feast of Weeks? That's the great question. If you're questioning the text, that's the one you want to have answered. Just to remind you of what goes on, well, before I do, I want to show you something kind of fun right here. I'm a word geek.

There's a word here that I just find fascinating. And it's not Pentecost. It's this word arrived. Because this word arrived in Greek is son playro? Which means to be fulfilled to overflowing, which is used in Luke 8 to talk about a boat being swamped.

Full to overflowing.

So literally, literally, if you translate this in a more modern vernacular of English, Acts 2 verse 1, when the day of Pentecost totally swamped our boat. It overwhelmed us. Isn't that a great word? And, you know, when Luke is writing Acts, you know, Luke went and he interviewed people who were there. He was not a first-hand guy in this.

He actually tells us, I went and interviewed all these people and I wrote the book of Acts. I also wrote my gospel based on those interviews.

So when he did those interviews, I'm sure he got this impression from the people he was talking to.

So tell me about that day. And they'd say, oh man. But It just totally overwhelmed us. It was like no other day. It was like swamping our boat.

It was such a big day. There's so much going on.

So I just love that.

So on the day when Pentecost came in and just swamped our boats, you will not believe. That's where I'm a word geek. and they were all together in one place.

So what else happens?

Well, verse 2, suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So you know this story really well, right? And this was noticed by the people who were in town from all over the world because it was one of the three festivals you had to come back in town for.

So there were people from as far away as North Africa that were there. We know this because they're spelled out. From various parts of the Arabian areas were.

So, I mean, it's just. There's people there, so they're speaking in their tongues so they can be understood. And I think I skipped ahead to 38.

So this is what happens after Peter gives a speech. He gives just tremendous speech. If you're not familiar with it, read Acts 2. What he says is just. Stunning.

It's stunning. And by the way, that's because it's not Peter who's speaking, it's the Holy Spirit that's speaking through Peter. Anyway, verse 38, after that's done. Peter says to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Wow. And that's what happened. How well did that go over? Verse 41.

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about 3,000 souls. Whoa. 3,000. It's an amazing event. Read Acts 2 if you haven't read it for a while.

But this also fulfills some Old Testament stuff. And I just I'm going to throw up two or three of them. Isaiah 11.10. In that day the root of Jesse, Jesse's the father of David, This is really meaning the messianic line that not only comes after David, but precedes David. What?

Yeah, well, we can talk about that another time. But we're talking about Jesus right there. In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples. Of him shall the nations inquire.

Well, the Pentecost event really was a nations' event. There were people from all over the world that were there, that were Jews. Just incredible. But he'll stand as a signal for the peoples, and they shall inquire of him. And that's exactly what happened on Pentecost.

You know, Peter's telling about this Jesus, and they're all inquiring, like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? And he makes his case for the fact that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah. And that the problem isn't with our occupation from Rome. That's not our problem.

Our problem as a people is our enslavement to our sin. And so you need to be Fixed of that, and that's what Christ came and died for.

So it makes an eloquent case for what that's all about. But it caused them to be really questioning about it.

So literally, they'll look and they'll inquire about who this Jesus is he's talking about. And they came to faith because of that. Isaiah 49, 6. This, by the way, Isaiah 49, 6. Big verse, I'll come back to why, but listen to what it is.

I'll make you as a light for the nations, talking about Israel, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. End of the earth.

Well, there's people from all over town that speak different languages. They're so foreign, right? End of the earth.

So, really, when you see Pentecost, you have to think about the fact that the truth about who Jesus was for those three years of his public ministry went from having this much exposure to the world to having this much exposure to the world. It's an expansion in terms of the news of who Jesus is.

Now I say Isaiah 49, 6 is important because that and a handful of other verses. give us an understanding about why God chose in his big plan to do something special with Israel that he didn't do with anybody else. Any other nations?

Now in another place. I can't remember if it's Numbers Deuteronomy. God says, I chose you as a nation. Do you remember where it is? I chose you to nation not because you real hot stuff.

or because you're nice people or you're really godly. Is that Deuteronomy? Ten, Deuteronomy ten. She's going to check for us. But there, Dorothy's going to check this, because we pass this verse back and forth all the time.

There, he basically says, I chose you as a nation to do something special. I'm going to do something special through you, but not because you are something special. In fact, Chapter 10. Chapter 10 of Deuteronomy.

Okay. Not because you're special, not because you as a people. Are anything hot? I'm doing it for another purpose. In fact, you have no distinctions among other nations in the world.

But I'm going to do something special. What is the special purpose for God's alignment with Israel when we see it through the Old Testament and even to this very day? What's that purpose? There it is. There it is.

God's purpose for Israel. Is to make them a light to the nations. And if you speak Hebrew, The word nations is goiim, the goi. The the un-Jews, the non-Jews. I'm going to make you a light, like a light bulb, to the non-Jews in the world.

That is your role as a nation. That's why I've decided to focus my efforts through you, Israel. for time being, because you will, on a nation level, a geopolitical, national level, you will be my evangelist in the entire world. as a nation. Wow, what?

There it is, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. You mean God's salvation wasn't just meant for Israel? No, that's a gross misreading.

Well, aren't they God's chosen people? For this purpose they are, yeah. for this purpose. But they're not God's chosen people because they're the only ones getting salvation. They're God's chosen people because He's going to use them to let the entire world know about the nature of His salvation.

Isn't Jesus the Messiah for the Jews? Isn't he the king of the Jews? How can the king of the Jews be also the king of the Gentiles? Because salvation comes from Him, and that salvation is meant to go to the end of the earth. to all the Goim as well.

So, anytime you talk about Israel versus the Gentiles, Israel versus the Goyim, the Goy in the world, you have to understand that Israel just has like a tip of the spear purpose from God in order to broadcast to the world the idea of how salvation is going to be provided for their sins. And principally, Through the news about who Jesus is. What? Is that the two lobes? Jews and Gentiles?

Jews and Gentiles? Let's think about that for a while. See, Michael's thinking. Are you all thinking? Yeah, oh two loaves.

There's no way you can get past the Feast of Weeks without answering the question, what's the two loaves? That's just such a profound thing. By the way, Dorothy and I watch a YouTube channel called So Be It. I think we've talked about it before.

So be it. If you go to YouTube and you look for a channel and just type in so be it.

So be it is what amen means, right?

So be it. So be it. It's an on-the-street. Interview that a fellow who works with Jews for Jesus does with Jews on the street in Israel. non-believing Jews, but I mean they're they're secular Jews.

And they talk about they talk about a lot of issues about Judaism versus Christianity because he confuses them with the fact when he's talking to them on the street about the fact that even though he's American and living in Israel. He is uh ethnically a Jew and w in Um Was raised as a Jew, but now has come to Jesus. And so people on the street in Israel who are ethnic Jews, secular ethnic Jews on the street, say, well, wait, wait, wait, how can you be a Jew and be Christian? And so that's central to conversations. And it's a fascinating bunch of conversations.

But often, Jeff Morgan is the one you see most on screen. Jeff quotes this verse. Because he says, you don't understand. The Christians in the world love who you are as Jews because you are the light that brought them to salvation. And they go, what?

Not me, I'm just a Jew living here in Jerusalem. What are you talking about? No, the Jews in general have become a light to the nations. Because of that light, they have found salvation and they want to thank you because you're a Jew. And it just blows their mind.

It just like, I don't get it. I thought in the entire world you had like three basic groups: you had Muslims, you had Jews, and you had Christians. And so now you're saying that the Christians love us because somehow everything they believe, which we don't believe, came from us? That doesn't make any sense. Man, what a great open door to talk about Jesus.

So I just encourage you to take a look at those. Those interviews are just so, they're so encouraging. They're so natural, but when Jews start to understand that there's less of a wall dividing Judaism and Christianity than they ever imagined. than they ever imagined. And suddenly they start warming to the fact that maybe this Christian Messiah.

is our Messiah.

So anyway, that's central. Isaiah 49, 6, he says, you don't understand, you are a light to the nations. Because you're bringing in salvation. Pentecost also is a foreman of Joel too. Joel 2.28, very famous connection.

It shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit.

So you remember how the spirit was poured out on all those 3,000, on all those people who came to Jesus? I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and even on the male and female servants, least of the least, in those days I will pour out on my spirit. And this is a remarkable change in the narrative of the Old Testament because God's Spirit makes cameo appearances through the Old Testament. I'm not trying to demean him at all, but I mean spirit of God, spirit of God, spirit of God, spirit, spirit, you know. But he's saying, Joel is saying, but a time's coming where we're not going to talk about cameo appearances of the Spirit of God.

We're talking about God's Spirit himself being poor. Yeah. On a lot of people, even the least, even the servants in your household. Can you believe that? And so, for a Jew who reads this, they go, man, well, that'll be the day.

You mean he's going to pour out his spirit on the Assyrians who hate us? who kill us? I mean, all of our enemies who attack us and pursue us. He's going to pour out His Spirit on those kinds of people? And that's how you look at this passage and say, well, this This is far beyond my understanding.

I don't know how can God pour his Spirit out? on a people who are so opposed to God's people. And in our modern sense, we'd say, you mean God's going to pour out his spirit on the Nazis? And it happened. Those people Yeah.

Those people are us people. All of us have fallen. All of us sin and fall short of the glory of God. We're not in different categories. We're all horrible sinners.

So, the bigger question is: how in the world can Joel II actually come to pass? How can God pour out in the Spirit on mankind who who is so uniformly fallen and dastardly. How can how can that ever happen? And that's a that's a It's a rational quandary with Joel too. And yet In Pentecost.

It happened. What? Yes, it happened. And Paul later tells us that there is no case in which you can become a believer and not have God's Spirit. If you are a believer, you have God's Spirit in you.

And Paul emphasizes, he pushes this so hard through all of his letters. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, in you, in you. You are the temple of God, God's Spirit dwells in you. It means ah, it's everywhere.

So the amazing thing about Joel 2, which is absolutely inconceivable, is that somehow at some point in history, God is going to pour out his spirit on the people who seem least worthy of having him be there.

Well, that's that's It does. That's us. That's Pentecost.

So What we have in our triangle right here, as we've collected these things, as we've done our Sherlock Holmes-y kind of stuff, is we find out that number one, we have a wheat harvest. Time of the year kind of fits that. Two loaves are the principal characters in the wheat harvest. Who they represent, we don't know, but typically in the pictures of the Old Testament it means a group of people. Then we have the law of Israel being given the law being given to Israel at Sinai.

Same time of year, and we have on Pentecost, we have the Spirit given to the nations. You gotta ask, Doug? Yeah, I think the two lows represent the one low for the strews and the other one is the residents. Doug proposes, kind of like Michael. that one loaf is the Jews and one loaf is the rest of us.

Okay, so we have two people thinking in the room. We could vote, but we're not going to vote. But you see what happens when you start stacking these things up? These things all occur on the same moment in the calendar. It's just fascinating.

It's fascinating. They have wheat harvest with two loaves. You have the giving of the law. to Israel And the law basically is a statement of what righteous behavior looks like when you're doing it from a heart of God. If you have God Himself inside of you, your behavior will change.

It'll look like this. That's the law. That's the law. That's what righteousness looks like. If us, God's heart looks like lived out.

It represents who God is. And then you have the amazing fulfillment of Joel 2, where the Spirit is poured out. And not just on a couple of people, but on the nations. That's an excellent question. It's an excellent question.

Three people thinking in the room. No, it's an excellent question. It really is. We'll address that later, actually.

So at this point, if you can't make this work, if you can't get this question to work out, what you need to do in your Bible study is you get to that point and say, well, God, I have more questions. And they're not being answered just yet, but I've got all the raw materials for the answer.

So now, God, I need you to give me understanding. I need for you to tell me what I'm seeing. I've read as much as I can see, and the question still seems rough around the edges. But some of my friends are helping me form a postulation. God, what's this all about?

And at this point in Bible study, what you do is you ask God to answer your questions. He's triggered enough questions based on his word. He's given you enough ambiguity because Feast of Weeks just means seven weeks. How can we celebrate a seven weeks of what? What?

What? What is the matter with that? And so as you pray, God's Spirit usually does something, and He says, Okay, wait a second. The law was given to Israel. And the Spirit is given to the nations.

It is a harvest. The harvest is to groups of people. The droops of people? Are the Jews? And everybody else.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. We have winners in the room. You can pick up your $5 as you go out this morning. That's clearly what it's saying. I mean, it's just clearly what it's saying.

The two groups are the two people.

Now, An interesting adjunct to this was stipulated in Leviticus 23, and it said that these two loaves of bread have to have what inside of them. Yeah. Now. If you're a Bible studier, you're going to say, wait, wait, wait, wait. Is eleven bad?

Isn't Levin bad? Isn't it Jesus who pointed at the Pharisees and said, Beware the leaven of the Pharisees? It's bad. Isn't it when you do Passover, you have to rid the house of all leavened bread? Yes.

And in fact, to this very day, when Jews do that, they may do it so completely, so so really completely and exhaustively. You open every cupboard, every drawer, you get every crumb of every piece of bread out of the house, and some of the most devout Jews will actually take a feather. and they'll use that feather to sweep out all those shelves. You don't want a speck. Because if you leave a speck of leaven in a lump of bread, it grows.

And that's the idea of leaven. It spreads. In the Old Testament vernacular, it contaminates. And if you leave it if you leave it unattended, it'll infect everything.

Well, what a better picture of sin. That's sin. It infects everything.

So why here? Here's the question again, we're asking questions of the text. Why does there have to be leaven in the two loaves of bread. Let's go to Rachel, then I'll go to you, Michael. And your hand was up too.

I'm sorry. Go. What do you think? Ooh, the Holy Spirit infecting the people. I like that.

Michael, you did you have? It is a new awakening. A new awakening. Michael. Uh finish her first.

Okay, I'm sorry. Did you have a similar? Levin represents your ego. Don't want ego. And I would dare say if I extend what you're just saying, that my ego represents my sinful self.

Because sin in its basic definition is all about me. Let's ego. I'm kind of with her coffee. You call us in? It can actually biblically be both ways.

It's whatever infects and spreads through a group. It can be both, and it's used both ways. But in this particular case I think it's pointing to the fact of sin. Because at the time the Jews felt like they were the chosen people, God had chosen them for a purpose. Over time, it ended up being more egotistical.

We're pretty hot stuff. But that's not really what it meant. God was saying, I'm choosing you to be the poor. Point the tip of the spear to bring salvation to the world. But guess what?

It's not because you as a nation are sinless. It's because you have sinned. And because the message you need to bring to the world is that even though we are hopelessly mired in our sin, there is an answer to that infection.

So that's really important.

So I think that's what the case here.

So the Jews didn't have an innate advantage over the rest of the world. Jews, rest of the world, Jews, rest of the world. They didn't have an innate advantage. They're as sinful as anybody. In fact, In fact, more so.

It's well documented. We pulled a lot of passages out of Exodus this morning. The one in Exodus 34 that I read for you, oh my gosh, that's after Moses makes the second set of stones with the things on them. What? What?

So The nation of Israel is meant to be a messenger to the salvation of God through the Messiah. and not because they are a sinless holier than thou loaf. It's because they're a loaf just like the rest of us. Just like the rest of us. You know, Paul uses his arguments about the Jews in his letters being just like the rest of us because he understands that there was this kind of haughty, egotistical, self-centered elevation that the Jews had because they were God's chosen people.

And so he had to knock them down a few knocks. And in one of his arguments, this is in Romans, he says, look. You you guys, the Jews think they're pretty hot stuff because they do the law and stuff like that. But let's go all the way back to Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel. Let's go back to Abraham.

How is he justified before God? He uses this argument in Romans. How did Abraham, Mr. Super Beginning of Israel guy, founder of our nation, father of all Jews, how did he find salvation? How did he find salvation?

Forgiveness in front of God. And Paul says, Faith.

So if for Abraham the key was faith, Then for us Is faith.

Now he expands that argument quite a bit, but he's really taking everybody down a notch. He's taking the Jews down from this lofty position to, look, you're just like the rest of us. And in the Feast of Weeks, with those two loaves both being leavened.

Now, see, look, God could have done this instead. He could have said, okay, when you get to the Feast of Weeks and you start taking your wheat out of the field and you make your flour and all that stuff, let's make two loaves of bread. Let's make one without leaven and one with leaven. You see how it changed the message? No.

Everyone's in need of salvation because we're all leavened with sin. But the Holy Spirit is leavened, is also. A great metaphor. And we'll have to get that to another time.

Now, what I want us to do right here is compare some things about these two events: the giving of the law. As well as the Spirit being given to the nations. I want us to draw some parallels. And I think this is one commonality in all of that. But there's more, and it gets kind of.

Kinda interesting. Um In Jeremiah 31, it gives us kind of a roadmap how to interpret these two columns. And we quote Jeremiah 31 all the time. In fact, it's the password in our local Wi-Fi in the room here. Jeremiah 31, colon 31.

Why? And pass it to the kingdom. Yeah. You get to the pearly gates, and Peter says, Why should I let you in? Jeremiah 31:31?

That's not actually, that's not a bad answer, actually. Never thought about that. I'll try that when we get there. If you get there first, tell me how it works. No, it's all about Jesus.

But look at Jeremiah 31. On this side. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Jacob. This column Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put my law within them. As opposed to stone, I'll put my law within them, I'll write it on their hearts. and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. As opposed, that's a big amen.

As opposed to the law being written on stones and given to Israel. A new covenant is coming with that same law. Basically, the outworking of righteousness in the heart of God will be written on your hearts, meaning you'll actually love what righteousness is, and the behavior will change because, not because you're forced to from the outside, but because from the inside God changes your heart, and that righteousness evidences itself in your behavior. Radically different day. Radically different Dave.

Read a little bit more of Jeremiah 31 around verses 31. Just a remarkable thing.

So in that one section, Jeremiah 31, it shows us these two columns tied together. Tied together just like that.

So much so that you can say That the first one is the law written on the stone, And second one is the law that's written on our hearts. Yeah. Now that's exactly what happens at Pentecost when God's Spirit is flowed into them. God's law is written on their hearts. What?

But again, I don't want you to lose this. from the agrarian mindset on the harvest? That loaf of bread You know what it smells like when it comes out of the oven? Sandy does. It's like It's like heaven.

I mean, you smell that smell. I don't know anyone on earth that doesn't like the smell of that. There's something so winsome, so warm, so inviting, so just. heart delighting.

So that when God considers a loaf of people He smells you like you just came out of the oven and went. Yes. Yes. That's the delight God has for you. And I don't I don't want you to minimize that.

So every time you wonder in the midst of horrible times, Does God love me any more? Bake a loaf of bread. and lean over it and this is what God thinks of you. Ugh. Beautiful.

He hasn't forgotten you. He hasn't forgotten you. He loves you too much to forget about you.

Okay, let's continue some of our comparisons. Uh um this is interesting. They're both very noisy events. Oh. Oh giving of the law.

Remember that big sound and fury at the top of the mountain? That firestorm and that loudness that some people have kind of. Equated to the sound of standing next to a jet engine at full power. I mean, it was just loud. It was crazy loud.

Caused them to tremble at the bottom of the mountain. And then the giving of the Spirit It's accompanied by loud noises. Coincidence? No, it's helping us now doing our Sherlock Holmes work on the Bible. Two big events.

two big events. How about uh How about this?

Well, if you don't believe me, read these two passages. Because in the case of the 3,000 of the giving of the Spirit, we understand, we just read that. But did you know that there were 300 that were killed at the giving of the law? Don't trust me. It's Exodus 32, 28.

Yeah, it it's there. But what's fascinating, it was 3,000 and 3,000. Coincidence? No. helping us out today.

Not coincidence. But this this the fact that 3,000 died with the giving of the law, and 3,000 lived With the giving of the Holy Spirit, Him writing His law in our hearts. Life is found instead. That contrast is exactly in Paul's words when He says this in 2 Corinthians 3:6. For the letter, that's the law, the letter kills.

The Spirit gives life. There's a lot of big theology that's hovering in the room right now as we read these things.

Now, the the law given here was not bad. The law wasn't meant to kill us.

However, in the end, what the law does is it kills us. And why? Because it's a standard for righteousness. And if that's a standard of righteousness, that at Yom Kippur is going to be used to judge us. What chance do we have?

Uh zero.

So, in that sense, as a standard for judgment, there's no way to get around it. You're dead. You're dead. You're going to lose in that judgment. And yet, with the giving of God's Spirit into the people who accept Christ as the sacrificed Lamb at Yom Kippur, the great exchange, the great exchange, those who embrace Christ as the great exchange can suddenly turn around and realize that the hopelessness of sin has been taken care of once for all, forever.

That's what I'm saying. The theology, you're kind of... We're kind of sitting under right now is bigger than any of us can say. We can't totally get around somewhere on this. But I'm convinced as you look at the parallels between the giving of the law and Pentecost, they're actually the fulfillment and the mere images of each other and the same thing at the same time.

I mean, they're all together. The giving of God's law to the nation of Israel was to tell them about the fact that his standard for his people is very high, and unfortunately, you don't satisfy it. And then the giving of the Spirit is the fact that that problem has been solved in Christ.

So the idea is that He has made two loaves of bread. Finally smell great. Two loaves, not just his chosen people Israel. but everybody else as well. Two loaves.

Not just one. Two loaves with leaven, not unleavened and leavened, two loaves with leaven, both loaves with sin. That's the Feast of Weeks.

So, when we looked at this as I wrap this up, here's kind of the standback question, and we'll keep asking this all the time. In the calendar, last time we finished the three fall feasts, High Holy Days they call those things. And those three fall feasts really clump together. They exist as kind of a unit, because they're on the calendar as a unit, but they say something in specific. And what we said, as I review it right here, is it's basically the end of the age.

This is after the final harvest and the final trumpet. And the trumpet announces to everyone, in large measure, that one big thing is going to happen now. And that big thing, Jews and Gentiles agree, is judgment and the second coming of Jesus. And finally, after the end of that, if you survive that because of Christ. The exchange of your flimsy shack tent existence to a permanent home.

That's the feast of booths.

So those clump together as an end of the age kind of thing.

So this one. This one is kind of in the middle, and this is really the announcement of the new covenant, or as some places call it, the times of the Gentiles, or the times of the nations, where the promise of salvation isn't just a localized thing in Israel. It's actually announced and broadcast to all the nations. That's the Feast of Weeks.

That's the two loaves.

Now, all of a sudden. That's the giving of the law and the solution to the condemnation of the law by giving us God's Spirit through Christ's death.

So those That makes sense. But here's the question, and this will lead us up to next week as we move into the first month, which is really important.

So what do those stand for? If indeed this thing in the seventh month is the end of the age, it's the final trumpet, the final harvest. And this thing in the middle is the giving of God's promises to all the nations, not just Israel. And what is that first clumping? There's three right there.

There's three right there. and a plot spoiler, one of 'em is Passover.

So you can start thinking of that. What is that all about? Because if we're looking at this as more of a What would I call it? more of a cosmic view of the timeline of humanity. in these seven appointed feasts, these seven feasts that are meant to be an integrated message system.

Is God telling us something about the entire span of mankind? And the problem that mankind has, and the promise that God has for mankind in the face of that problem. One last comment you can make on the double loaves one, Feast of Weeks. Do you notice how on the calendar it's kind of separated? from the other the other ones.

There's three at the end of the year, there's three at the beginning of the year. There's this one that's hanging out in the middle. And it's hanging out in the middle with a lot of time of the ones before it, before it, and ones out. I mean, it's just, it seems like it's out there, just hanging out there. Indiscriminate in time, seven weeks after the stuff that we'll look at later on.

But I mean, it's really interesting, it's kind of an in-betweener. of the seven feasts. Could that be? That is representing the fact that now we are in a period of time. between the beginning and the end.

where the word of salvation is being broadcast to all the nations. And that time could take a long time. It could take a period of time. It's not actually connected to one event. Or another event.

It's actually a period of time. It's kind of out in the middle lands, I might say, in terms of the cosmic calendar of all mankind. And I think that's not a bad way to look at it. It's not a bad way to look at it.

So really the times of the Gentiles are the times between Two very significant events where the fall feast represents one significant event. And the early first month of events Signal another event as a three-time celebration.

So we're going to test that speculation when we get to those three, and then we're going to stand back and look at all of them again. But the issue is that you have three clumped in the middle at a beginning, you have one in the middle that kind of indeterminately signals an in-between time, and then you have three at the end which signals the end. There's a beginning and an end and an in-betweener.

So I would maintain that those of us who've come to Christ have come in this in-betweener time. We have come during the Feast of Weeks. where not only is the law given, But the problem of the condemnation of the law is solved. And that solution comes through Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And guess what?

You're part of the harvest. This is great stuff. My my toes are tingling right now. It really is an integrated message system. God established it to say, get a clue.

And ask questions. Ask questions.

Okay, we're going to finish with this song because in this entire picture, it's all about who Christ is. that makes our participation in this hopeful rather than making us despondent. Name of Jesus.

So let's just pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for Thank you for creating in us curiosities and inquiries. and head scratching, and working through what you put there for us. We thank you that your Spirit gives us understanding most of all, because without your Spirit we'd be clueless about everything.

and especially about your word. And, Father, as we look at this, we thank you for the fact that you have included us. in this great harvest. We thank you that you've included us in one of these loaves. And we thank you that as you bend over that loaf fresh out of the oven and you smell it, it delights your heart tremendously and that you delight yourself in us tremendously.

Finally the first fruits. of a long effort. planting. and watering. and weeding.

of grinding. A bakey. And the result Is universally wonderful to us and wonderful to you.

So thank you that you call us to yourself that way, and we pray you to continue through your spirit to give us understanding. in these calendar events. about your great and persistent love for us and for all mankind, and the solution you have for us those that you love. in the life of Christ himself.

So thanks now in Jesus' name. Amen. Mm-hmm.