Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire.

The reason that Jewish people refer to Pentecost as Shavuot is because in the Torah, where this holy day of the Lord is first revealed, the Lord said it's supposed to take place seven weeks and a day after the previous feast that we call firstfruits. Seven weeks and a day equals 50, and that's where we come up with the term Pentecost, because as many of you know, Pentecost means 50.

What we're going to do today by the grace of God, is we're going to be looking at Shavuot or Pentecost, both in its original historical context, as well as in present-day application for our lives today. You see, the Old and New Testaments fit together like a hand in a glove.

And all God's holy days that are first revealed in the Old Testament, or the Tanakh, are shadows of something that Jesus has done for his church today, for his bride, for you and I. Paul said that the Old Testament was written not just for the people that were alive during the days that it was written in, and not just for Judaism.

But Paul says that the Old Testament was also written for us, believers in Jesus, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Did you know that in Matthew 13:52, Jesus said this? He said, "Every scribe," and a scribe was somebody that made copies of the Torah. They just made copies of it, they wrote it down all by hand. They still do it today, the Torah, or the first five books of our Bible, which is called the Torah, the copies of the Torah in synagogues today, they're handwritten. These are handwritten.

So scribes were the ones that were writing down the copies of the Torah. This is what Jesus said, Matthew 13:52. He said, "Every scribe that becomes a follower or disciple of mine is going to be like the owner of a mansion, and he'll be able to bring out of his mansion treasures old and new." In other words, as believers in Jesus, there's treasures for us in the entire word of God, both the Old Testament that the scribes were making copies of, as well as the New Testament, the B'rit Chadashah.

And so I want to look today with you at Shavuot, Pentecost. Let's first of all read about it in Acts chapter 2. Hear the word of God, I'm beginning there in verse number one.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven, and when this sound occurred, the sound of this violent rushing wind, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

And I'm going to go on. They heard them speaking in their own language. And then they were wondering what was going, what is going on here? How is this possible? And those that were under the influence of the Holy Spirit that fell upon the church on Pentecost, or Shavuot, they were kind of stumbling around because they were under such power, there was such a weight of the presence of God upon them, it appeared to those that were on the outside that weren't experiencing it from the inside.

It appeared to those on the outside that like maybe they were drunk or something, because their balance seemed to be off, their body movement seemed to be strange, and they began to ask, "Are these men drunk?" And Peter said, "These men are not drunk as you suppose. It's the middle of the day. But what you're seeing," he said, "was prophesied by the prophet Joel." Notice, beloved ones, how Peter brought the Pentecost experience back to the Old Testament.

Remember, the New Testament didn't come out of a vacuum. Jesus didn't appear out of a vacuum. Jesus and the New Testament came out of Judaism, they came out of the Old Testament. This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 and 18, "Do not think I've come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I've not come to abolish, but listen, to fulfill or to fill full." And he said, "And everybody that teaches others about how I relate to the Old Testament," Jesus said, "he's going to be called greatest in the kingdom of God."

I love it when Jesus said in John 5, he said, "Moses wrote of me." And so I want you to understand, when we're studying Pentecost today, we shouldn't look at it as simply a New Testament holiday because it actually existed 1500 years for the Jewish people before Acts 2 was ever written. In other words, when the believers came together in Acts chapter 2, and they were gathered together in one place, and suddenly the Spirit of God came and Pentecost was there. Listen, they had already been celebrating Pentecost before the Spirit came in Acts 2. They had been celebrating Pentecost for 1500 years according to the book of Leviticus.

Let's go to the book of Leviticus for a second to put this in context. I'm going now to Leviticus chapter number 23 and I'm going to begin reading there in verse number 15. Moses is recording this for us, he's recording the Lord's words, and he said, "You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering," this is the feast of firstfruits, that's what he's referring to there. "You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering, there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord."

So once again, when the Jewish people in Acts chapter 2 were gathered together in the upper room, understand, they were already celebrating Pentecost. They were already celebrating Shavuot before the Spirit came. When the Spirit came, what God did is he brought Pentecost or Shavuot to its fulfillment, to its fullest meaning. You see, Shavuot was already a time of thanksgiving, listen now, for the agricultural harvest. It was already a feast of thanksgiving for the God of Israel's abundant provision, for Yahweh's abundant provision.

But when the Spirit came, the Spirit of abundance. Jesus said, "I am abundance." Jesus said, "I have come to give life and give it more abundantly." Then the feast of Shavuot or Pentecost was fulfilled in the truest sense of the word. So Pentecost, or Shavuot, in its initial historical context had to do, it was an agricultural feast, it was a feast of thanksgiving, it was revealed to us in Leviticus 23 as I just read.

Now as the years went by, listen now, through careful calculation, the rabbis believe that it was on this day of Shavuot or Pentecost, get this now, that the Spirit of God in the Hebrew Bible fell upon Mount Sinai. Remember Moses went up the mountain, Exodus chapter 19, chapter 20, the Spirit of God came down upon Mount Sinai in fire and smoke, the mountain quaked violently, God spoke from heaven, the people at the base of the mountain, the Israelites all trembled. God spoke, Exodus 19, Exodus 20.

So through careful calculation and through tradition, the rabbis were teaching that it was on this day of Shavuot or Pentecost that God came to Israel on top of Mount Sinai. So hear this very carefully. In Acts chapter 2, when we read about the day of Pentecost had come and they were gathered together, what these Jews were thinking about before the Spirit came, listen now, what they were thinking about was how 1500 years earlier, 1500 years before Acts 2 was written, these ones that were gathered in Acts 2, they were thinking about how 1500 years earlier, the Spirit of God fell upon Mount Sinai, the glory of God fell upon Mount Sinai, fire came and God spoke from heaven.

As they were thinking about that, beloved one, suddenly the same God that fell upon Mount Sinai, the God of Israel, Yahweh, fell again upon them in the upper room, but rather than speaking to them from on top of a mountain and from the outside, instead, he did what Jesus said he would do. He would come within them. The Spirit of God again came, but this time he came inside them, and they began to supernaturally speak, beloved, in languages that they had never learned, and notice that the Spirit came in again violently as a rushing wind, and again the Spirit came in fire and as a tongue representing that God is currently speaking.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Rabbi Schneider. And he'll be right back, but first, a quick announcement. The Tabernacle isn't just ancient history, it's a shadow, a roadmap to Jesus and into the divine presence. But unless you understand the pattern, the path to the Holy of Holies and God's Shekinah glory remains hidden. In The Mystery of the Tabernacle, Rabbi Schneider unveils truth that will bring you into personal intimacy with God. Discover the meaning of the menorah, the priestly garments, the altar of incense and more. Don't miss the encounter you were made for. Move beyond the veil. Connecting the Old and New Testaments is exactly what Rabbi does best and this book does it so well. Make sure to get your copy today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. That's discoveringthejewishjesus.com. Or give us a call at 800-777-7835. And now, here's Rabbi Schneider.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: And so Pentecost in Acts 2 is a fulfillment of what Jewish people had already been celebrating for 1500 years. You see, beloved, you have been grafted in as a Gentile believer into the Judeo-Christian faith. Again, Jesus didn't come out of a vacuum. We should not separate Christianity from Judaism because Judaism is the mother of Christianity. Indeed, listen now, Jesus is the fulfillment of Judaism.

In reality, Jesus didn't come to start a separate religion. Jesus came to fulfill everything that had already happened, that the God of Israel had revealed and done. That's why again Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 and 18, he said, "I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill," everything that the prophets and Moses spoke and wrote about. And so the reality is, I want you to understand your faith, beloved one, from its Judeo roots because Jesus said in John chapter 4, "Salvation, get it now, is from the Jews."

In fact, let's go to John chapter 4. I want to just take a little bit of a side step, but I want to show you this because it relates to what I'm saying. John chapter 4. Remember what happened in Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 2, the Spirit was given to God's people. Up until Acts chapter 2, there was a few select people that had God's Spirit, kings and prophets, okay? And it fell upon certain individuals, but the Spirit of God didn't inhabit every believer. Jesus said to his disciples, "The Spirit is with you but will be in you." The Spirit of God didn't come to live inside every child of God, every blood-bought child of God until Pentecost came.

So Pentecost symbolizes God's Spirit moving from the outside to the inside. God's Spirit, rather than speaking from Mount Sinai, now he's come to live within the human heart. Rather than writing his law on tablets of stone, God is now speaking to us from the inside. He's gone from the outside to the inside. So listen to this in John chapter 4. Hear the word of God. John chapter 4. Jesus is speaking here to the woman at the well. Beginning in verse number 20. She said to him, she wasn't a Jew, she was a Samaritan. She said to him, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you people say that it is in Jerusalem that men ought to worship." In other words, she didn't worship as the Jewish people did. She didn't worship at the temple, she didn't worship in Jerusalem. She worshipped someplace else.

So she's saying to Jesus, "You know, we have our religion as Samaritans, and you Jews have your religion, and you say that it's in Jerusalem that men ought to worship." Listen what Jesus said to her in verse 21. "Yeshua said to her, 'Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We," who was speaking of the Jewish people, "we worship what we know, get this, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.'"

So Pentecost is the birthday of the living church. It was at Pentecost that God's people received his Spirit as an indwelling possession. And through his Spirit we now have access to him, beloved, in the Spirit. You know, there is no greater day in the history of the church other than the death of Jesus on the cross and the giving of his Spirit. Now when he comes again, that'll be the third greatest day of the church. But when we celebrate Pentecost, when we celebrate Shavuot, when we celebrate, beloved, the giving of God's Spirit, I there's not even words to describe it because when you think about the fact that Jesus, that Father God, has given you and I the gift of his Spirit, what greater gift could he have given us than the gift of his Spirit?

Beloved one, when he gave us, when he gave you, and when he gave me his Spirit, he gave us himself. Everything that he is, he gave us. In his Spirit is love, in his Spirit is power, in his Spirit is joy, in his Spirit is victory. Everything that is him is in his Spirit. He gave us his Spirit, and beloved, through his Spirit, you can go through and get through whatever tribulation you may be going through right now, and whatever tribulation you and I will face in the future because greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. And who's in us? Jesus is in us. His Spirit, beloved one, is in us.

But I want you to think about something. You and I cannot know the power of the Spirit. Remember, we're talking about Pentecost today. Pentecost is the celebration of the gift of God's Spirit. It's the fulfillment of Shavuot. It's the fulfillment of thanking God for his abundance, which is seen in fulfillment when we receive the abundance of God himself through the gift of his Spirit. You and I cannot know this abundance in experience. We can't be living in the reality of it, listen now, unless we obey the Spirit.

You see, unless we obey the Spirit, the power of the Spirit cannot be released from our lives. And one of the things that's really important, beloved ones, for you and I to do in terms of obeying the Spirit is to be his witnesses. Jesus said right before he ascended to heaven, he said to his disciples, he said, "You shall receive power when the Spirit comes upon you, listen now, and you shall be my witnesses."

You see, the Spirit is given, yes, for our enjoyment, yes, so that we could experience God and have his peace and have his joy and know him and talk to him. Absolutely, 100,000% yes. But the Spirit, beloved ones, is also given, listen now, for power to obey him in being his witnesses. And why would God keep giving us more of something if he knows we're not going to use what he gives us? God gives the Holy Spirit to those that obey him. The Holy Spirit is a free gift, but we're not going to know the fullness of the Spirit unless we're obedient to him in the realm of witnessing. We have a mission, beloved, in this world. Our mission as the church is to be his witnesses.

Jesus' last words were, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation." The book of Matthew, "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations." You know, everybody can speak to somebody. Everybody could speak to somebody. Maybe you're in a state right now where you don't get out anymore, somebody's taking care of you. You know what? You can speak to your caregiver. You can speak to your doctor. You can speak to your nurse. You can lift up the name of Jesus to somebody. Even if the doctor just says, "How are you doing today?" maybe you're struggling, you could just simply say, "I'm so glad that I have Jesus, doctor. Did you know that Jesus loves you too? What do you think of Jesus?"

I've heard of Jewish doctors coming to faith because they had a Gentile patient that was facing a terminal illness, and yet in the midst of that, that Gentile patient was full of love, full of joy, full of hope, and kept on witnessing to that Jewish unbelieving doctor about Jesus, and that Jewish unbelieving doctor couldn't wrap his head around it. He couldn't understand how this woman that was dying, had a terminal illness, could have such love for him, had such joy, had such peace, had such an attitude of victory given the situation that they were in. It so perplexed the Jewish doctor, he literally and truly, beloved, received Jesus as his own Messiah.

I want you to know, God has given us his Spirit because he loves us so that we would enjoy him. But he also gave us his Spirit, friends, so that we could be his witnesses. I want to encourage you, make Jesus relevant to the people around you. Make Jesus relevant. You have an anointing from the Holy One. Jesus is both the most ancient being because he's the Ancient of Days, but he's also the most contemporary modern being, the most cutting-edge person in the planet. Father God, I pray that you would anoint each one of your children that's listening. Father, I pray that you would anoint each one of us to be bolder witnesses, to be better witnesses, to be more effective witnesses, that we would be able to present your son in a cutting-edge way to this generation, to the world around us, to our sphere of influence. Father, we love you today. We thank you for Jesus, and we thank you for your Spirit.

Guest (Male): As we've come to the end of this special episode today on Shavuot, or Pentecost,

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I'm reminded of Mary, and how she was worshiping Jesus at his feet, anointing them with that costly bottle of perfume, and then wiping them off with her hair and her tears, and the people around just didn't get it. It was such an extravagant show of love. In fact, one of the disciples said, "You know what, that money should have been given to the poor." But Jesus rebuked him and said, "You know what, you have the poor with you always, but what this woman has done, this extravagant display of love, it's going to be recorded, and people are going to read about it for the rest of time." Many of you are moved to give a special love gift to Jesus during this Pentecost season. If you'd like to present King Jesus a gift through Discovering The Jewish Jesus this year, beloved, I encourage you just to act on that Spirit that's nudging you to do it, and know that your gift is going to be used to reach the world for him.

Guest (Male): Amen. And if God is calling you to give to Discovering the Jewish Jesus a special Pentecost or Shavuot offering of any amount, please give us a call today. You can reach us over the phone by dialing 800-777-7835. Or give online just by visiting our website, discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And as a token of our appreciation for your generous support, we want to send you Rabbi's exclusive monthly teaching booklet along with our latest newsletter. The latest newsletter includes details about Shavuot, which started yesterday at sunset on Thursday, May the 21st, and ends at nightfall tomorrow. And Pentecost, which is traditionally celebrated this Sunday on May the 24th. You know, in the Hebrew scriptures, Shavuot was the day that God gave the Torah to us, and in the New Testament he sent us the Holy Spirit. You know, these two holidays, they are celebrated on different days because they follow different calendars. But they really both celebrate the same thing, God meeting with his people in a covenant relationship. And you know, when you understand God through this kind of Jewish lens, it can really be helpful. And you know, that's what we're all about right here at Discovering the Jewish Jesus. When you partner with this ministry, you're helping support that kind of thing, helping people connect the Old and the New Testament. It's truth that really transforms. Jesus said, "I didn't come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." So I just want to ask you, if this ministry is blessing you, would you sow into this ministry and give generously? You can give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com, or you can send a check in the mail to Discovering the Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228. And now here's Rabbi, he's going to sing the Aaronic blessing in Hebrew and then speak it in English. Rabbi.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6, is not a blessing that comes from an impersonal being out there somewhere in the heavens. This special blessing comes from a person, Yahweh God Almighty, our Creator and Maker. So receive God's blessing into your life right now.

Y'varechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha.

Ya'er Adonai panav eilecha v'yichuneka.

Yisa Adonai panav eilecha v'yasem l'cha shalom.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom.

Guest (Male): This program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus, and I'm your host, Dustin Roberts. Be sure to come back next week when Rabbi Schneider explains the way of the just. That's Monday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.