Traditional Christian and Catholic liturgical calendars put Pentecost 50 days after Easter. Which, as I wrote in this post, was almost a month away from the Jewish Passover. In 2024, Pentecost Sunday is May 19.
The Jewish Spring Festival of Weeks or Harvest is called Shavout, celebrated 50 days after Passover. During Shavout circa 33 AD, Jewish people from many nations were gathered in Jerusalem and were surprised when they heard the Followers of Jesus speaking in their languages! We find that story in the Book of Acts. In 2024, according to the Hebrew Rabbinical calendar, Shavout is celebrated on June 11-13.
How Jesus Fulfills the Jewish Spring Festivals in the Resurrection and Pentecost
Jesus, the Passover Lamb, sacrificed His life taking our sins away. He died for us. In other words, we killed Him.
When He conquered death by rising on the 3rd Day, He became the “First Fruit”, the first of the “Great Harvest”. Paul explains…
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NLT
The Jewish Feast of First Fruits comes from Leviticus…
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, 10 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest. 11 On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before the Lord so it may be accepted on your behalf. 12 On that same day you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 With it you must present a grain offering consisting of four quarts of choice flour moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. You must also offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering. 14 Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to your God. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.
Leviticus 23:9-14 NLT
Shavout / Pentecost is also found in Leviticus…
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. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops. 18 Along with the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams as burnt offerings to the Lord. These burnt offerings, together with the grain offerings and liquid offerings, will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 Then you must offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a peace offering.
Leviticus 23:15-19 NLT
Jesus spoke of the Great Harvest both Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Here’s Luke’s version…
2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
Luke 10:2 NLT
Prophecies Fulfilled and Yet to be Fulfilled
5 …until at last the Spirit is poured out
Isaiah 32:15 NLT
on us from heaven.
Then the wilderness will become a fertile field,
and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.
The Holy Spirit was poured out on Jesus’ followers that first Pentecost and then 3,000 Jews from different nations became born-again believers and were baptized that day! The church was born! Now, it was up to them to go out to the “ends of the earth“, as Jesus put it, to spread the Good News of the Salvation that Jesus Christ brought to all humankind.
7 How beautiful on the mountains
Isaiah 52:7-10 NLT
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel (Zion) reigns!
8 The watchmen shout and sing with joy,
for before their very eyes
they see the Lord returning to Jerusalem.
9 Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyful song,
for the Lord has comforted his people.
He has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord has demonstrated his holy power
before the eyes of all the nations.
All the ends of the earth will see
the victory of our God.
With yet another fulfilled prophecy, Jeremiah writes…
31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34 NLT
Do YOU Know Jesus?
Invite Jesus into Your Heart and Receive the Gift of Grace and the Confident Hope of Eternal Life…
In case you haven’t gotten it by now, Jesus Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach, Christianity, and the Old Testament are all tied together. Anyone who tries to separate them is a false teacher.
Here are several videos on Pentecost to help clarify any doubts, misconceptions, or false teachings you may have heard.
In no specific order…
