The Letter Kills, But The Spirit Gives Life

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot is right around the corner.  It will take place this year at sundown, May 25.  The day is probably better known among Christians as Pentecost.  It’s when the Holy Spirit fell upon those in Jerusalem, and they began to share the gospel message in other languages with those who were there to keep the feast from countries outside of Israel. 

It’s the day of the birth of the church, right?  

While there is truth to that statement, it probably represents the perspective of many Christians who only saw the second act of the two-act play. 

But there is more to it than that.

You see, this New Covenant that we are living under is a Jewish covenant with a Jewish Messiah, and it’s the best kept secret in the world. Many of our Jewish people don’t understand its prophetic nature; and many Gentile Christians don’t understand its historical underpinnings.  Our goal is that you might come away with a perspective that says, “You know I never thought of it that way.” 

You see, Shavuot or Pentecost is one of the three pilgrimage feasts in which every Jewish male appeared before the Lord in Jerusalem.  It was one of the appointed times (Hebrew - moadim) on Israel’s calendar. There were seven “appointed times” beginning with Passover in the spring and ending with Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, in the fall. 

These were all prophetically significant. The first four feast days or appointed times have been historically fulfilled exactly on the day. Shavuot or Pentecost being the fourth.  

Shavuot in Hebrew means "weeks." It is celebrated seven weeks plus one day after Passover.  It is referred to many times as Yom Habikkurim, which means the “day of first fruits.” It is considered the first fruits of the summer harvest.  There was also a Feast of First Fruits about 50 days earlier, right after Passover.  

It was a time to take the firstlings of the crops just starting to sprout out of the ground and bring them before the Lord in a wave offering to thank God that the first is finally out of the ground. That is to say, prophetically, that the Messiah is raised from the dead, as Paul put it:  

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)

Those who have fallen asleep will also be raised.  We are the second, third, fourth, etc.  And so Shavuot is the beginning, a first fruits again at the beginning of this age, of those gathered to celebrate the feast at the Temple site. And from that beginning of the first Jewish believers, we look forward to a bountiful crop in the summer harvest at the end of the age, made up of Jews and Gentiles who come to Yeshua.  That is the harvest of souls for the salvation of the Lord in this age that we are living in. 

There is another interesting aspect of this day, that was given to Israel, as described in Leviticus 23:15-17. 

It was the only festival day in which leaven was required in the offering:

"You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord." (Leviticus 23:17)

This was unusual, since Leviticus 2:11 commanded, "No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord."

The reason God required leaven to be used at Shavuot carried symbolic meaning.  Usually leaven represents sin in the Bible. And in this case, we have two loaves of leavened bread. Same weight each, two tenths of an ephah. One for the Jew and one for the Gentile. They’re both supposed to be there. 

It is interesting because when we look back to that first Shavuot / Pentecost after the resurrection of Yeshua, we find that (Acts 2:1): 

"When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place." 

The Temple. 

These are Jewish disciples who are there to keep a Jewish feast. 

Luke uses the definite article referring to “the” day, indicating that there was something special about this day because of the events that were about to take place. Also, Luke used the Greek word Sumpleroo, which is translated “was now come,” but the meaning is “to fill up completely” or “to fulfill.” In using the definite article and the term Sumpleroo, Luke is making the point that Shavuot is about to be fulfilled by the events that will follow.  

Ultimately, after the Holy Spirit fell upon those gathered on this day, and after Peter’s sermon and explanation of what had taken place, verse 41 tells us that about 3,000 souls were added to the church. These were all Jews. Later, at the afternoon service at the Temple, 5,000 were saved.  We now have 8,000 new Jewish believers making up the church. 

And so what do we have, something new? No, something old. A mission to the Jews. 

The first several thousands of believers in the early church were Jewish. I once heard a pastor say on the Southern Steps, “the Gentile didn’t have a chance until Pentecost.” I knew what he meant. When the Spirit came and when the church age began. Gentiles didn’t really come into the picture until Acts 10, when Peter went to Cornelius many years later.    

Do you remember when Moses brought the Law down from Mount Sinai in Exodus 32 (Judaism teaches that this also happened on Shavuot), they had built a golden calf to worship, and the Levites went through the crowd and about 3,000 were killed? 

When the Law came, 3,000 died.

Now, at Pentecost, when the Spirit came, 3,000 were saved. 

The same number returned to God’s chosen people. 

Indeed, “...the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)

What took place on this particular Pentecost represents the summer harvest of first fruits. A larger harvest than First Fruits in the spring, but not as large as the harvest that will occur with the fall crops at the end of the harvest season agriculturally (the end of the age, prophetically). 

Hopefully, we have filled in some blank spots for those who grew up in the church, and maybe were not familiar with some of the Jewish history involved with this tremendous day on God’s timeline.  Many of our Jewish people only saw the first act of this play.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could share with them and give context to the messianic fulfillment of Shavuot for your Jewish friends?