Rabbi Schneider - From Sinai to the Upper Room, His Spirit in You
Everything that Yeshua, that Jesus did during His earthly ministry He timed to the exact day to fulfill these spring holy days. In other words, as many of you know, once again, He was crucified on Passover. He was buried during the next spring holy day called unleavened bread. He rose from the dead on the Hebrew holy day called First Fruits. Today we're going to be talking about the last of the spring holy days called, in Hebrew, Shavuot, also referred to as Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, meaning fifty.
Now, how do we go from Shavuot, meaning weeks, to Pentecost, meaning fifty? Because this particular holy day took place at seven weeks and a day after Passover. So it took place fifty days after Passover. So that's why in Greek it's called Pentecost. Pentecost means fifty. So we're gonna zero in now on Pentecost and we're going to be reminded today, as we consider Shavuot or Pentecost, about the importance of being led by and walking by the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh. So we're going to begin by going to the original source. So we're going out of the book of Leviticus 23. Hear the word of God. "You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord".
Fifty days after Passover, a new grain offering was presented to the Lord. Most of these holy days were rooted in an agricultural context in which Israel was living in when the word came to them. But they have other levels of anointing on them. So that over time the Hebrew people associated Shavuot or Pentecost with the day that the Lord appeared to them at Mount Sinai in the wilderness in fire and glory with the mountain shaking. They then heard the voice of God, and then the Lord wrote His law on the tablets of stone, and Moses gave them to the people of Israel.
So let me say that again. So think about this now. We come to Acts 2. And the Bible says the day of Pentecost had come. The day of Pentecost had come, they're gathered together in the upper room, they're thinking about what had happened 1,500 years earlier when the God of Israel, when their God had given them the ten commandments. They're recalling the history. They're remembering the fire on the mountain. They're remembering that the mountain shook, that Yahweh spoke, that the people trembled, and Moses then came down the mountain, gave them the law, and recite it to them all he had received from Yahweh in the mountaintop, and how the nation of Israel said, "All that Yahweh has said, we will do".
And then Moses, Moshe, sprinkled them with the blood of the covenant. That's what they were thinking about in the upper room in Acts 2. They weren't thinking about going to some city where there was a Pentecostal revival going on. They were thinking about Israel's history. Then suddenly, suddenly, while they're thinking about the same God, the same Lord of all that appeared to them at Sinai, suddenly manifest Himself and makes entrance in the upper room where they were seated. And the whole room was filled with glory and smoke, and the same fire that they saw on top of Mount Sinai, the same wind, the same glory entered into that upper room.
Hear the word of God. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together. And I love that they were they were all together in one place. And suddenly... "Then suddenly fire came from heaven, a noise like a violent rushing wind," just like that mountain was quaking at Sinai, "and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living and grounded in this. So this is what Peter does. He quotes now Joel 2 to explain this phenomenon that everybody was witnessing as these first 120 were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in tongues".
Peter said this, "And it shall be in the last days," as he's quoting Joel, "God says, 'I will pour forth my Spirit on all mankind and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days, pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy". And so what is happening here is the fulfillment of what Joel said: that the Lord was going to pour for His spirit on all flesh. And the result of that is that we'd be able to speak by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even as I'm doing now, and even as you do as you're being led by the Spirit.
Even if it's just calling a friend on the phone because you're inspired by the Holy Spirit, you just begin to minister to them and love them. Joel and Peter said, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy". "Naba" is the Hebrew word speaking by inspiration to the spirit. "Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams". So what more depth. Finally, Beloved, as we conclude today, I want to go to the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah gave us a word that really succinctly tells us what happened when the Holy Spirit came.
I'm reading from Jeremiah 31 now, where Jeremiah is prophesying about the giving of the spirit. "Behold days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with them and their Fathers when I took them out of Egypt by the hand". He said that covenant which they broke up, Behold I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel The Lord said, "I will put my law within them and I'll write it upon my heart". Ezekiel talks about this same promise where the Lord would put His Spirit within us. Beloved one, you now, because of your love and faith in Jesus, had been given the most precious gift that God could give anybody. You've been given the gift of His Spirit.