Transcript

During a service at an old church, when a particular prayer was said, half the congregants stood up and half remained sitting.

The half that was seated started yelling at those standing to sit down, and the ones standing yelled at the ones sitting to stand up.

The new pastor, learned as he was in the Word and doctrine, didn’t know what to do. His congregation suggested that he consult a housebound 98-year-old man who was one of the original founders of their church.

The pastor hoped the elderly man would be able to tell him what the actual tradition was, so he went to his home with a representative of each faction of the congregation.

The one whose followers stood during the prayer asked the old man, “Is the tradition to stand during this prayer?” The old man answered, “No, that is not the tradition.” The one whose followers sat said, “Then the tradition is to sit!”

The old man answered, “No, that is not the tradition.” Then the pastor said to the old man, “But the congregants fight all the time, yelling at each other about whether they should sit or stand.” The old man interrupted, exclaiming, “THAT’S the tradition!”

Tradition can be a good thing. Every family has family traditions that become important and special. My youngest son is a stickler for our family traditions and makes sure that we keep them, especially our holiday traditions.

But when it comes to the interpretation of Scripture, tradition and traditional teachings can be a problem. Because tradition is hard to break off from. Tradition is comfortable. Tradition is easy. And to follow tradition it is to follow the course of least resistance.

And tradition can rob us of truth. The Lord warned the Pharisees and scribes about “Making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition” (Mark 7:13).

The Apostle Paul warned the church, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men…” (Col. 2:8).

What does the Scripture say? That’s always what is most important. In our next couple episodes, we’ll examine Acts chapter 2 in light of the authority of Scripture and rightly dividing the Word of truth.

Acts 2:1-4: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

“And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

In Leviticus 23, God detailed 7 feasts that Israel was to observe under the law. Leviticus 23:1-2 reads, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.”

The seven annual feasts of Israel were spread over seven months of the Jewish calendar, at set times appointed by God.

The 7 feasts of the Lord in their sequential order were: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles [or Booths].

The first three feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits were to be observed together at the beginning of Jewish calendar and basically constituted one giant feast.

The last three of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, were also observed together later in the autumn of the year.

The one in the middle of the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost stood alone.

Of the seven feasts, three were decreed by God as “solemn feasts” during which all Israelite men were obligated to present themselves before the Lord.

Deuteronomy 16:16: “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.”

After the temple was built in Jerusalem, this required all Jewish men to make 3 journeys each year to Jerusalem, at the feast of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

The seven feasts reveal to us a special story about Jesus Christ. The final three feasts: Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles, look forward respectively to Israel’s hope of the Second Coming of Christ, Israel’s national conversion, and the kingdom reign of her Messiah. But the first 4 teach us about Christ’s finished work and the coming of the Holy Spirit to Israel.

The first feast of Passover was a one day feast which pictured the death of Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ was crucified on the Feast of Passover.

The death of the Passover lamb in Israel’s past had redeemed her and delivered her from bondage in Egypt. Christ death was the fulfillment of that feast. He, the Passover lamb, shed His blood which resulted in redemption and freedom from bondage to sin.

The feast of unleavened bread was a 7 day feast, which began on the day immediately after Passover. Its number of 7 days was a perfect period of time according to the Bible.

It pointed to the outcome of Christ, the Passover lamb, being sacrificed and the blessing that resulted for the people of God. Leaven is a picture of sin. Unleavened bread speaks of our sins being taken away by the cross, and by that perfect number of 7 days, it refers to the continuance of this blessing forever and ever.

Christ, the Bread of Life, when He was buried, He was in the tomb on the first day of the feast of unleavened BREAD. The feast of unleavened bread was fulfilled in His burial, which pictures how Christ paid the full penalty for sin by His Cross and the deliverance of believers when their sins are taken away.

The Feast of Firstfruits took place during the feast of unleavened bread. The Feast of Firstfruits was based on the agricultural season in Israel. Barley was grown as a winter crop and began to mature for the spring harvest. The Feast of Firstfruits marked the beginning of the harvest of the spring barley.

Christ rose again the third day on the Feast of Firstfruits. His resurrection was the fulfillment of that feast and of the new life of the spring harvest.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” His resurrection as the firstfruits represents the great harvest of people who will one day be raised to eternal life in the future.

Next comes the Feast of Weeks which is the same as the day of Pentecost. Deuteronomy 16:10 instructed Israel: “And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand.”

It was called the Feast of Weeks because SEVEN WEEKS were counted from the Feast of Firstfruits until observing this Feast. Then after the 7 weeks or 49 days had passed, on the 50th day the Feast of Weeks was observed.

The word “Pentecost” in the Greek means “fiftieth”, because this feast day was observed on the 50th day after the Feast of Firstfruits.

Like the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks was based on the agricultural season in Israel. It fell in early summer each year, late May or early June.

The Feast of Weeks celebrated the completion of the spring harvest and marked the beginning of the harvest of the summer wheat for Israel.

Exodus 34:22 says, “And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest.” This festival was the official beginning of the summer harvest season.

It was a harvest festival in which Israel expressed her dependence on God and thanksgiving to Him for the harvest and for their daily bread.

Being one of the required annual feasts to appear before the Lord, from every part of the country and the world, Jews and converts to Judaism, or proselytes, would stream to and fill Jerusalem for this feast day.

This is why in Acts 2, we learn about the Jews that were there “out of every nation under heaven…Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes” (2:5,9,10).

The instructions from the Lord for the feast day included the sacrifice of lambs, bullocks, and rams, as well as the presentation of two wave loaves baked with leaven.

Leviticus 23:17 reads, “Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.”

These loaves were two long, flat, leavened loaves of wheat bread, baked from the wheat of the new harvest which had just been gathered in.

Again, leaven is a picture of sin. For the feast of unleavened bread there was no leaven because it pictured the sinless Savior who became sin, paid the price fully for sin and takes our sins away.

For the feast of weeks, the two wave loaves were symbolic of Israel in whom there is the leaven of sin because Israel and all people are sinners.

On this feast day, these loaves of bread were waved before the altar by the priest. He would wave them before the altar forwards and backwards and then up and down.

After Christ rose again on the Feast of Firstfruits, Acts 1:3 says the Lord “shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them 40 DAYS.”

As Christ prepared to ascend to heaven, He commanded His apostles, “that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4).

The reason they needed to stay in Jerusalem was twofold. First, because the feast day of Pentecost was coming and was only 10 days away.

And second, because they needed to wait for the promise of the Father. In the Upper Room, the Lord had told His apostles that He was returning to the Father, but that the Father would send them the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17 reads,

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

The sending of the Spirit to Israel took place on the Jewish holy day of the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, which took place 10 days after Christ ascended to heaven.

By Christ sending the Holy Spirit at the feast of weeks or on the day of Pentecost, it showed that the coming of the Spirit was the fulfillment of this feast for Israel.

So when Acts 2:1 says, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” it refers to this day being “fully come” as the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the coming of the Spirit, and the great antitype or fulfillment of the yearly Feast of Pentecost.

Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits found their fulfillment in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The feast of weeks found its fulfillment with the coming of Spirit after Christ’s ascension on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

Being a harvest feast, we learn how it was a picture of the harvest of souls in Israel receiving the Holy Spirit under the terms of the new covenant.

Leviticus teaches that these loaves were “the firstfruits unto the Lord.” Being firstfruits unto the Lord, the Jews at Pentecost who received the Spirit were the firstfruits of all in Israel who in the future will have the Spirit in them within Christ’s millennial kingdom on the earth.

In that future day, being firstfruits of earthly kingdom believers with the Spirit in them, they will do the very things you find in Acts 2: having all things common and speaking in tongues and known languages of people around the world.

The point I want to make clear in this message concerning Acts chapter 2 is that Pentecost was a Jewish feast day and the fulfillment of its type for Israel. It was one of the annual Jewish feast days under the law.

All the feast days, including Pentecost, pertained to the law of Moses. But Paul told the church, “for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

And all the feast days were given to Israel. The Lord told Moses, “Speak unto THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD…” But we are not Israel. We are members of the Church, the Body of Christ.

Acts 2 needs to be interpreted in light of prophecy and God’s program with Israel. The coming of the Spirit was a prophesied event for Israel. It was prophesied both in the Old Testament and the Gospels.

John the Baptist prophesied, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost [at Pentecost], and with fire [in the Tribulation].”

Isaiah prophesied, “Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen…For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Isa. 44:1,3).

Everything that happened at Pentecost was in direct fulfillment of prophecy.

This is why Peter in his sermon at Pentecost in Acts told the Jews, “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh” (Acts 2:16-17).

Also in his sermon, Peter pointed out prophecies from David that have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Not long after the day of Pentecost, Peter said in Acts 3:24:

“Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” “These days” include Pentecost.

The day of Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit is about the fulfillment of prophecy and not “the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25).

The Holy Spirit was supposed to be poured out on God’s people Israel in preparation for the kingdom of God being established on the earth.

Remember that Christ taught His apostles the night before His crucifixion, “Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20).

Israel’s old covenant, the law, was initiated and established with the shed blood of a sacrifice. And Israel’s new testament, or new covenant, was initiated and established with blood as well, by the shed blood of Christ at the Cross.

The new covenant was promised to the nation Israel and it contains both physical and spiritual blessings. One of the spiritual blessings of the new covenant for Israel was the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The Lord God told Israel in Ezekiel 36:27 that one of the blessings of the new covenant was: “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

The New Testament was established at the cross, and the blessing of God putting His Spirit in believing Israel transpired at Pentecost in accordance with that new covenant. This caused them to walk in God’s statutes and have all things common as a result.

Part of the feast of Pentecost was the presentation and waving of the two loaves of bread before the altar in the temple. It is commonly taught that the two wave loaves of the day of Pentecost represent Jew and Gentile in the Church, the Body of Christ.

But as we rightly divide the Word of truth, we need to interpret this feast day strictly in light of God’s program with Israel, with prophecy, and with the law of Moses.

Those two wave loaves represented Israel. The Feast of Weeks foreshadowed the day when the Spirit would be poured out upon Israel in accordance with the new covenant.

And Jeremiah 31:31 reads: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with [1] the house of Israel, and [2] with the house of Judah.”

Those two loaves represented the two houses in Israel: “the house of Israel, and…the house of Judah” (Jer. 31:31).

The two loaves looked forward to the day when the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah would united as one in Christ’s earthly millennial kingdom.

In that day, God says in Ezekiel 37:22, “I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”

The Church, the Body of Christ is not made up of two separate loaves of Jew and Gentile. Instead, the Apostle Paul tells us, “For we being many are ONE BREAD, and ONE BODY; for we are all partakers of that ONE BREAD.”

The body of Christ is one bread, one loaf, with Jew and Gentile becoming one in Christ, who is “that one Bread.” The one bread is composed of many separate grains of wheat, but “we, being many, are one body in Christ” (Rom. 12:5).

We don’t learn about Jew and Gentile in one Body until the Apostle Paul. To make those two loaves on the day of Pentecost represent Jew and Gentile in the Church is to anticipate revelation that had not been given yet at that time.

To follow that Acts 2 is the beginning of the church creates problems with interpreting Scripture and with what the Church is to do today.

It can logically lead the church back into attempting to recreate the signs and wonders and tongues that were clearly part of the coming of the Holy Spirit on that day.

It places us back under the law and under its feast days, when we are under grace. It leads us to follow Peter instead of Paul. This in turn leads to a message proclaimed by the church of Judaism and the law mixed with true Christianity and the message of grace.

Pentecost was a day when prophecy for Israel was being fulfilled. But under grace, in this previously hidden age, there is no prophecy for Israel being fulfilled today.

The prophets of Israel most assuredly saw the coming of the Holy Spirit to Israel. But no prophet saw the dispensation of grace or the Church, the Body of Christ.

In reference to the church and the dispensation of God, Paul wrote in Colossians 1:26 that this was, “hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.”

To say that Acts 2 is the beginning of the Body of Christ is a problem because nowhere in the chapter do you find the words “Body of Christ.” Instead you read about Israel.

The Body of Christ is read into the chapter. The Church, the Body of Christ is not found in the Bible until the letters of Paul, which were written much later.

Further, saying that Pentecost is the beginning of the church confuses the gospel, because Peter clearly told Israel to repent of crucifying their Messiah and to be water baptized for the remission of sins and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

But Paul teaches to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and that salvation is by grace through faith alone, not of works.

In Acts 2, Israel had not yet been set aside in unbelief. God was still working through His chosen people to be His channel of blessing to the world. He was offering her the kingdom. He was giving them another opportunity to accept Jesus as her Messiah.

The Spirit coming upon Israel at Pentecost was not about starting a new church; instead His coming was about empowering the 12 apostles, the 120 in the upper room, the existing kingdom church and the many who were saved on this day of Pentecost to be witnesses to Christ’s resurrection and to reach the world with the gospel of the kingdom in accordance with the great commission.

Christ told the apostles in Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” in order that they would “be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

So what happened in Acts 2? Acts 2 is the feast of weeks under the law and its fulfillment. Acts 2 is the coming of the Holy Spirit to Israel in fulfillment of prophecy.

Acts 2 is the fulfilment of Christ’s words that He would not leave the apostles comfortless and that the Father would send another Comforter to them.

Acts 2 is the continuation of Israel’s prophetic program and the building up of the little flock, the believing remnant in Israel and the kingdom church.

Tradition, however, teaches that this is the birthday of the church, the Body of Christ. But what do the Scriptures say? The spirit of being a Berean is to receive the Word with all readiness of mind and to search the Scriptures whether those things be so.

So don’t take my word for it. Go to God’s Word and see if these things we’ve shared with you are so.