As most of you probably know today we’re celebrating Pentecost. The day that the Holy Spirit was poured out for the first time on the disciples of Jesus. What you may not know is that today is also the Jewish feast of Shavuot the feast of first fruits. 2000 years ago the disciples first celebrated Pentecost. Ushering in the first fruits of Jesus’ promises to us. And today we’re still reaping from that bountiful harvest.
What is Shavuot?
I want to take a min to tell you about Shavuot. The day is full of prophetic meaning. Shavuot is first mentioned in Exodus 34.
Exodus 34:22
22 “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
The word Shavuot means weeks. God commanded Israel to celebrate it 7 weeks after Passover.
Leviticus 23:15-16
15 “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks. 16 Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.
That’s 7 days times 7 weeks (plus 1 day). That’s the completeness multiplied by completeness, so even the completeness is complete.
- Shavuot is one of three festivals men were commanded to travel to the temple to celebrate.
- In the Bible, there are two celebrations of the first fruits. The first is around Passover at the time of the barley harvest, and the second, Shavuot, marked the wheat harvest in the Land of Israel.
- In addition, rabbinic tradition teaches that the date of Shavuot also marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai
- From an early period, Shavuot was regarded as an appropriate time to make covenants between God and humanity.
In Judaism, the counting of days and weeks is understood to express anticipation and desire for the giving of the Torah.
Shavuot is the closing of a season that started during Passover and the sacrifice of a perfect lamb. Then came the first fruits of the barley season. Followed by fifty (Pentecost is the Greek word for 50) (7 times 7) days of growing anticipation and desire which leads to us celebrating the first fruits of another harvest. A harvest recounted in the book of Acts.
Acts 1:1 – 5
“In my first book I told you, Theophilus, about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During the forty days after he suffered and died, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive. And he talked to them about the Kingdom of God. Once when he was eating with them, he commanded them, “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.””
Here we see Jesus planting the seed of promise in his disciples and if we flip over to Acts 2 we can see the first fruits of the harvest.
Acts 2:1 – 6
1 On the day of Pentecost[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,[b] as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers
On a day that according to tradition marks the revelation of the Ten Commandments and the Torah. On a day that according to tradition is an appropriate time to make covenants. God sealed his new covenant with Humanity by pouring out his spirit. But it’s important to remember that this was just the first fruits. First fruits are just a taste of the fullness of the harvest to come, a harvest whose time has come. Scripture is rich with God’s promises. He’s sowed them from beginning to end. And God is someone who keeps His promises
The Importance of promises
On the site Church in the Square, I found this about promises.
Promises are powerful.
Whether a parent promises to come their kid’s baseball game or we tell our spouse on wedding day, “I will love you and be true to you … until death do us part” … promises are powerful. With words we engender security or give assurance to those around. So making promises is a primary way we show love, it’s a way we reveal the invisible qualities of character.
But every promise involves risk. We risk words not become reality. And so when promises are made we decide whether we will organize our lives differently as a result. Either way—whether or not promises are kept—relationships are impacted.
Have you noticed? The more promises are made, trusted, and kept the stronger a relationship becomes. The opposite is also true … when promises are made, trusted yet not kept our relationships atrophy.
Promises are powerful.
One of the central themes of the Bible is promises. God makes promises to his people. He makes promises for the very same reasons we are drawn to do so—he desires to reveal his love and invisible qualities. In other words, God makes promises to make himself known. And when we take him at his word our relationship grows because God always keeps his word. In fact, one way to grow in our relationship with God is to reflect upon the promises God made and has fulfilled through the passion of Jesus Christ.
What are some of Jesus’ promises to us?
For me to stand up here and enumerate all the promises God made to us through the Bible would require more time than we have here today. So today we’re going to focus on a chapter of John that is overflowing with promises. You can turn in your Bibles to John 14.
To set the scene a little bit, John 13 talks about the start of Passover and washing the disciples’ feet. Jesus knows that his time is up, and so John 14 through John 18 is really Jesus’ last teaching to his disciples. Everything he’s saying here is shaded by the fact that he’ll soon be leaving them.
In John 14 we find 4 distinct promises.
1. Promise of Power
Jesus isn’t leaving us powerless in the world.
John 14:12-14
12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
This promise isn’t just to pastors, apostles, or prophets. You don’t need to go to seminary so you can have access to this promise. This promise is for ANYONE who believes in Jesus. ANYONE who believes will do the same works that JESUS did and even GREATER! Jesus didn’t pull His punches with this promise either. He says you can ask for ANYTHING, so that he can bring his Father glory. On one simple condition if you ask in “my” name. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to ask perfectly. You don’t have to have a good track record. Just ask in Jesus’ name.
This wasn’t a one-off verse or typo in the Bible either.
Mark 11:24
24 I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.
1 John 5:14–15
14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
Jesus has promised us power beyond our comprehension and in many cases beyond our capability to believe.
2. Promise of peace
In a world where peace seems to be almost non-existent, the Bible promises us just that.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Isaiah 26:3
You will keep in perfect peace
all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Brian Bill said this:
The first part of Isaiah 26:3 contains a powerful promise: “You will keep him in perfect peace…” The word, “keep” means, “To guard, protect or maintain.” It’s a military term meaning to protect a camp or castle. The enemy is unable to get in when God’s peace protects us. With God as our guard we have nothing to fear, do we? Psalm 85:8: “…He promises peace to his people…” Psalm 29:11: “The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”
The phrase, “perfect peace” is literally, “shalom, shalom” in Hebrew. The word “perfect” is not in the original. With Isaiah’s use of colorful language and vivid vocabulary, it’s striking to me that he doesn’t use an adjective to describe God’s peace but simply repeats the word. One commentator says it means, “In peace, peace.” Spurgeon said that “God does nothing by halves, but everything by doubles.” When a word is repeated in the Bible it’s done for emphasis, like an exclamation mark.
Many of us would have gathered that God promised us a life without trouble or trials. But
John 16:33
33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
A world without struggle wouldn’t be good for us. The same way if you put your baby in a bubble all his or her life, they might not fall down and skin their knee, but they probably wouldn’t turn out to be a normal well adjusted adult either. The struggle of this world strengthens us, strengthens our hope, our faith, our belief, and in the midst of trouble we will have peace.
3. The promise of the Holy Spirit
Jesus didn’t abandon us.
John 14:15 – 18
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you.
We’ve already talked a little bit about the Holy Spirit, so just a couple of things. Under the old covenant the only way to approach God was through sacrifice and approaching the Holy of Holies. Here Jesus is saying something radical. That same God who the priest so feared that they had a rope tied around their ankle so if they died in His presence, they could be pulled out. That same God who came in the form of a man, living among them, doing all kinds of signs and wonders, was going to live inside of them in the form of the Holy Spirit. Everywhere we go we carry the presence of God.
John 14:26
26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
Romans 3:5
5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans 8:26
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.
The Holy Spirit is our Counselor, Advocate, Helper, and Teacher. The Holy Spirit is God living inside of us.
4. The Promise of His Return
John 14:2-3
2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
The Jewish people counted the weeks between Passover and Shavuot with anticipation and desire. And we are likewise as we look forward with anticipation and desire for the return of our King.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died.[a] 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died[b] will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.
The first fruits of this promise came on Easter, with the resurrection of Jesus. Then 50 days later came Pentecost and the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise that God would no longer dwell near men and women but that the Holy Spirit would dwell within us. And the Holy Spirit speaks to us of a day soon when the promise of Jesus’ return will be harvested.
Conclusion
2 Corinthians 1:20
20 For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.
Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace.
Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his stores of future grace.
Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer banks on the promise of God, and goes to the bank every day and draws on stores of future grace needed for that day.
Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ. That is why (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.”
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Mighty Anchor 