In Hebrew the Feast of Weeks is known as ‘Shavuot’. This feast is the last of the Spring Festivals held 50 days or 7 weeks from the day of the Feast of First Fruits. The first fruit of the summer harvest was wheat. So the Old Testament priests would offer up two loaves of bread as a heave (lifted up) offering to God. These loaves were long, flat, leavened breads made of wheat. After the destruction of the temple by the Romans the rabbi’s changed the focus of the festival from agricultural to historical events. Hence today on the Feast of Weeks Jews celebrate the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai and the birth of Judaism.

What is the significance of Pentecost to New Testament believers?

1. The Birth of the Church

In Acts 1 and 2 God poured out His Spirit on the 120 believers in the Upper Room and on that day a further 3000 people was added to the Body of Christ. This Church is unique. In Ephesians 2:15 it shows that through the cross Jesus created a new man out of two. The Church consists of believing Jews and believing Gentiles. When we look at the Day of Pentecost the two bread loaves offered up by the priest in the Old Testament is the foreshadow of the Church, that is believing Jews and believing Gentiles coming together as one. The bread is leavened with yeast and a symbol of leaven is sin. This means that there is still sin in the Church. We are not yet perfect but when Jesus comes we will be fully redeemed. We can only be cleansed by the Word of God, so we need to continue to use the water of the Word to cleanse our heart and be transformed into the image of God.

2. The Holy Spirit is the First Fruit

Ephesians 1:13-14 it shows that when we accept Jesus into our lives God stamps us with the seal of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the foretaste of what greater thing is to come, our full redemption our heritage in the Lord. For the Holy Spirit to be given to us as a first fruit or down payment, this guarantees God will fulfil His promise that Jesus will return for His Church and on the day of the rapture we will be fully redeemed body, soul and spirit.

3. The Dedication of the new temple (Acts 2:1-4)

In the Old Testament each time a temple was dedicated to God, God showed His acceptance of the holy temple through fire and His presence. These are a few examples of this happening in the Bible: Exodus 40:34-35, Leviticus 9:23-25, 2 Chronicles 7:1.
In the Old Testament the temple was built with materials, but now it is a spiritual temple. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. On the Day of Pentecost God did a new thing. For this new temple God showed His acceptance by filling us with the glory of God and by sending fire to consume us. On the Day of Pentecost the 120 believers became the temple and the sacrifice being consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. In order for us to be transformed in the image of Christ we need to be consumed daily by the fire of the Holy Spirit.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost introduced the Church age. This Church age started with the Day of Pentecost and will end on the Feast of Trumpets. We are living in this time the Church age, the age of Grace. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we accept Jesus into our lives this is the tangible assurance that God accepts us, that God is in us, that we are a child of God and that He will come back for us.

Your Pastor

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If you would like to accept Jesus into your heart please pray the following prayer.
“Dear God, I am a sinner and need forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and died for my sin. I am willing to turn from sin. I now invite Christ to come into my heart and life as my personal Saviour.”

If you have just prayed this prayer and accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, congratulations! We invite you to contact us as we would love to pray a blessing over your life and help guide you on your journey.

The next step. As a way to grow closer to Him, the Bible tells us to follow up on our commitment.

• Get baptised as commanded by Christ.
• Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ.
• Spend time with God each day. It does not have to be a long period of time. Just develop the daily habit of praying to Him and reading His Word. Ask God to increase your faith and your understanding of the Bible.
• Seek fellowship with other followers of Jesus. Develop a group of believing friends to answer your questions and support you.
• Find a local church where you can worship God.

God bless you.