At this point in time He was resurrected the first born from the dead. The disciples were not born again until after Messiah was risen. Then He breathed into them the breath of new life/chaim in the Holy Spirit/RuachHaKodesh.
We know from scripture that the disciples/talmidim had not yet received the same fullness of power and authority Yeshua/Jesus had while on earth because He did not give it to them until Matthew 28:18.
Jesus came and said to them, “ All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
In Luke 10:19 He gave them authority Listen carefully: I have given you authority [that you now possess] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and [the ability to exercise authority] over all the power of the enemy (Satan); and nothing will [in any way] harm you.
However we read in Mark 9:19- 25 that they had encountered an unclean spirit that would not obey them. Yeshua/Jesus called it a deaf and dumb spirit in verse 25.
In verse 26 it came out and in verse 28 the disciples asked why they could not cast it out and in verse 29 29 He replied to them, “This kind [of unclean spirit] cannot come out by anything but prayer [to the Father] and fasting.” This was Yeshua/Jesus’ lifestyle, He was always ready to do His Fathers will – this is why he came – 1John 3:8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Messiah gave them this promise in
John 14: 16,17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Verse 18 “I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, bereaved, and helpless]; I will come [back] to you.
This was His promise, the one that would be fulfilled at Shavuot/Pentecost. The promise of
Luke 24 39 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
Acts 1:4 And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
Again do we recognize that in verse 17,the Spirit of truth, cannot be received by the world, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;
but as His children/disciples, we do…
John 14:20 On that day [when that time comes] you will know for yourselves that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
This description is about the infilling/indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
That day, was the day of Pentecost/Shavuot-
pronounced Sha voo ote.
That was the day that was coming.
Then He said you will know. I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.
The only way to know it, was by the infilling, by impartation of His Holy Spirit.
So, back in Mark 9:28 when they could not cast out the unclean spirit was it because Yeshua/Jesus had not yet died as the Passover/Pesach lamb?- He had not been resurrected and become as the unleavened firstfruit from the dead and the subsequent omer count was not completed. No power had been given them more than the authority we saw Yeshua/Jesus give them to use His name. in Luke 19.
At this point of their discussion, He had not died and His Fathers spirit of Holiness had not been released, as the veil in the Temple separating the Holy of Holies, had not been torn to allow His presence to be released from that sanctuary. Recall the fact that all the Old Testament sacrifices were in place to show the sinful Israelites how to approach a Holy God, and to teach them that only innocent sacrificial blood can pay for sin ..a life for a life. Leviticus 23:15-17.
At that point, that year, Pentecost/Shavuot had not come and the power from on high had not yet been released as both Isaiah and Joel had prophesied.
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Isaiah 32:15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest
Isaiah 44:3,4 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: …
The 49 days of counting from the Omer was still in progress…
Depending on how the counting from the omer is begun, Shavuot could occur any day between 5 and 13th days of the 3rd month. As some don’t yet accept Messiah has come, the Israelites/Jewish people associate Pentecost/Shavuot with the giving of the Torah at Sinai. This is because according to Shmot /Ex. 19 the Torah was given to Moses on the 3rd day of the 3rd month. They have fixed in their calendar to be the 6th day of the 3rd month as a remembrance of Torah and the commandments. This is one of the 3 shalosh regalim /annual feasts they are commanded to attend. The date on our calendars varies because lunar calendar does not have fixed months. The month begins with the new moon and lasts 29/30 days.
And when the prophesied day came
Acts 2:1-21 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place…
In obedience to Yeshua/Jesus command in Acts 1:4 And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss.
Then the power of the Fathers Spirit of Holiness was poured out onto the prepared, obedient disciples who had been counting 49 days from the Omer.
His promise was fulfilled as recorded in Acts 4:31 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
As the cloven tongues of fire like glory, baptized/immersed each one there, they became bold. Peter was now not fearful to stand up for His Lord. They were emboldened.
The descent of the Heavenly Fathers Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit at Shavuot/Pentecost marked a pivotal shift in the lives of the disciples and apostles, equipping them with spiritual strength and courage; and an ability to speak clearly, which was needed to boldly proclaim the gospel. This divine intervention not only emboldened the apostles but also served as a catalyst for the rapid spread of what we now call the ‘Christian’ faith. Acts 2:10-21
They had a 1st infilling when Yeshua/Jesus breathed on them inJohn 20:22; however it was obviously not enough to continually sustain them because at Shavuot/Pentecost, they received power from on high.
A second immersion and infilling, we call it a baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now they were ready to fulfill that great commission, they were equipped with His indwelling power to do what He was commanding them to do. They showed by evidence of speaking in other tongues and all the other gifts and fruit of the spirit flowing through them; that they were spiritually equipped and had received what they would need to fulfill their call. It is very clearly a separate ministration of our Heavenly Father.
Another reference of it being a separate experience is found inActs 19:2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”. So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
It is essential for all believers to be effective and to have a completion of spiritual growth, maturity and fruitfulness.
In Acts 9:22 Paul was still being filled with more and more power; so it is an ongoing re-newing, re-energizing, a continual refilling and infilling. Just as a vehicle needs to be refilled with fuel to continue and take us on our journey, so do we.
Our Heavenly Father needs a vessel of maturity, one that He can fill, and then our testimony will be effective.
As with the apostles and disciples, the power of the indwelling RuachHaKodesh/Holy Spirit was visible and with demonstration, signs and wonders followed them.
Our Heavenly Father wants us mature so He can pour more of His power in and through us. However, power, dunamis, explosive dynamite power, must have a stable container. One with no weaknesses that might give way under pressure. The Lord can only do so much, we have to do our part, we must exert our free will to prepare ourselves spirit, soul and body to become that purified vessel of honor; we are destined to carry the glory of the Father wherever He sends us. These vessels do not have selfish, carnal desires and motives. They cannot hold the power well and any cracks or weak areas have to be healed completely, or the power will leak out.
We saw how in Acts 2 This is the day spoken of by the prophet, referring to Shavuot/Pentecost, and how cloven tongues of fire appeared, together with the mighty rushing wind which filled every room in the house. He wants to do the same with us…To clean out anything that is not of Him, anything of the old man that still remains in our lives and house.
It was a fulfillment prophetically, as are all things pertaining to the coming of Messiah. There is more to this prophetic fulfillment as when He told them to wait found inMatt. 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.
He was referring to the books of Joel and Isaiah. They knew the significance of this Appointed Time, this Moed, this feast; however this particular event was a totally new experience and it initiated a spiritual harvest, the first fruits of Messiahs resurrection.
This is the 2nd of the three mandatory annual harvests/moedim they were to attend in Jerusalem. Called the shalosh regalim. Passover/Pesach, Pentecost /Shavuot and the one in the fall Sukkot/Tabernacles.
Shavuot/Pentecost marks the climax of the Pesach/Passover season and historically it commemorates the giving of the Torah, the commandments, the Word of God to Moses at Sinai.
The cloven tongues of fire and the rushing mighty wind was a similar experience that the Israelites had in the wilderness at Sinai. Exodus 19:16-25. The third morning there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.
Now the disciples were receiving a new dimension of Gods power, His Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit to add to the Word which was already imparted, for this specific reason; so they were vessels that would be effective witnesses for the kingdom of God, just as Messiah, Himself the Word of God, had called them to be.
Acts 4:33 . With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And … grace was so powerfully at work in them, all the apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Messiah.
Acts 10:38 … how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went … doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with them …
Another interesting fact is that, in the wilderness 3000 died in one day according to Ex. 32:28. The Levites obeyed Moses’ command, and about 3,000 people died that day.
Whereas 3000 died at the season of the giving of the commandments, the written Word of God, we now see 3000 saved with the giving of the Holy Spirit through the Living Word of God. Shavuot /Pentecost apparently was on the exact same day of that year!
Acts 2:41 38
The reference in Acts 2:3, With the sound of a rushing wind, and like the appearance of cloven tongues of fire dividing itself upon those in the upper room. It may have been the same upper room they shared Pesach/Passover with Messiah?
Tongues refers to the shape and
Cloven, we can find an explanation in
Leviticus 11:3. Whatsoever parteth the hoof — That is, divides it into two parts only; or, is cloven-footed and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. It is clean for you.
Kosher is the English word for the Hebrew word kashér, which means “fit” as in clean not unclean.
This would have given them peace/shalom, that this was from God, His Holy fire was more than likely the same manifestation as Moses experienced in Ex. 3:2 ‘And, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.’ The fire of God His shekinah glory. And Heb. 12:29. Tells us, for our god is a consuming fire. Always cleansing and purifying yet not destroying.
As the fourth of the Spring Appointed Times/Moedim, Pentecost/Shavuote/Sha voo ote, is the beginning/ of the renewed covenant for all gentile nations, tribes and tongues; the genesis of the church/ecclesia, the body of Christ, and fulfilled by Messiah.
It is also called Chag haKatziyr, feast of the harvest andDay of the first fruits/Yom ha Bikkuriym and is a one day feast of first fruits offering of the newly matured wheat crops and no regular work is done.
Although not named as Shavuot in the gospels, there are 2 passages that could refer to it. One is Luke 6:2 when the disciples were picking grain on a Sabbath and John 5:4 when Yeshua/Jesus goes to an unnamed feast.
Certainly the Israelites were in the wilderness in the 3rd month and the remembrance of the 10 commandments reminds us, we should have no other gods before the Lord; and are commanded to leave all our idols and bad habits behind …Hard to do in this world of materialism and constant temptations, but we must make new habits, Godly ones, denying that flesh daily. The Israelites in the wilderness had many problems too and in our lives, we should ask ourselves, is our focus on material things instead of doing the things Yeshua/Jesus brings out in Matthew 25:35. To feed the hungry and do the works of the kingdom?
In Ex. 19:8
And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.” So Moses brought their words back to the LORD. It is likened to a wedding, tying His people permanently to Him with vows of a covenant. The Mosaic Covenant. For believers in Messiah, Shavuot is important because it has ties to deliverance and salvation celebrated at Passover and with Yeshua/Jesus’ crucifixion, to His resurrection on First fruits of Unleavened Bread. His ascension 40 days later and then His sending the immersion/ saturation infilling of the RuachHaKodesh/Holy Spirit on the 1st Fruits Appointed Time of Shavuot/Pentecost. This gives us the power to live victorious lives, and enables us to witness to all non believers by the way we live.
The time of waiting for the immersion of His Ruach haKodesh/Holy Spirit, parallels the counting of the Omer from the First Fruits of Unleavened Bread to the First Fruits of Shavuot. Just as the farmers could not use the wheat crop until the offering of the loaves referenced inLev 23:17, so also, Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, as the Bread of Life, had to ascend before the rest of the grain.
A clear reference to His teaching in John 12:24 “Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.
Yeshua/Jesus explains that His death is necessary for His glorification and the salvation of souls, using the example of a grain of wheat that dies and bears much fruit. The first fruit harvest at Pentecost/Shavuot were the disciples plus the 3000 of the pilgrims to Jerusalem from all the nations under heaven Acts 2:5 -11.
After this baptism/immersion, they were on fire for the Lord preaching with bold confidence and Peter telling the people in verse 38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized/water immersion every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness /remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And in 2:43 many signs and wonders were done through them. They preached the gospel healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, raised the dead and cast out demons..
Are we doing this? Are we disciples?
Are we filled with His Spirit? Do you want to be?
If we are not doing the things Yeshua/Jesus called us to do, then we need to be baptized/immersed in His Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh.
In verse 38, Peter says Holy Spirit is a gift. Are we going to tell the one we say we love that we don’t want His gift?
If you have asked, why we need to know these things, why do we need to know the appointed times of the old testament?
Maybe we should be asking why we don’t think we need to know?
If anyone has ever fallen in love with another person, they immediately want to know all about that individual their history and background, and all about their family. They want to spend every waking moment with them, can’t wait to be with them and talk to them. Longing to hear their voice and what makes them happy and they want to tell them how much they love them; and want to do everything and anything that pleases them and makes them happy, denying themselves in favor of them.
Are we like this with our savior Jesus/Yeshua? Shouldn’t we want to know all there is to know about Him? He said if you love me you will keep my commandments…. Do we truly love Him?
More and more we need His power to live a Godly/Holy life before Him and be ready for that final harvest. The one which will come, just as surely as He came the first time, every prophetic Moedim/Appointed Times of The Lord is fulfilled perfectly.
For those new to the site, there are several other helpful posts on the Spring Moedim listed on Home Page under:
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord, Deliverer and soon returning King; and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
