Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: Jesus referred to the people that were unsaved as a harvest field that was ready to be harvested. And so suddenly Pentecost, if you already know the story of Acts 2, there's going to be a massive harvest. Maybe one of the biggest harvests in the first century of the church is in the first day when the spirit comes down.

Guest (Male): On today's word, Pastor Brett Meador and the early church saved by grace.

Brett Meador: Acts chapter 2 is a shift of gears, a big one. After thousands of years of the law, now we're in the age of grace.

Guest (Male): Acts chapter 2 describes the beginning of a spiritual harvest as the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles at Pentecost that followed the ascension of Jesus. We learn of the apostle Peter's message that pierced hearts resulting in thousands of souls saved in one day. Pastor Brett Meador gives us a verse-by-verse account from today's word of the harvest that marked the birth of the church.

Brett Meador: What an amazing book we have in our hands. It's really 66 books, 40 different authors. What an amazing book in that with all that diversity of three continents, it's still perfectly unified without controversy, without contradiction. Men do not reject the Bible because it contradicts itself; they reject the Bible because it contradicts them.

The Bible is full of this amazing internal harmony that really couldn't have been done over a 1500-year period with any accuracy, especially when it deals with things like Bible prophecy. We'll see some of that here in Acts chapter 2, prophecy from the Old Testament being fulfilled and also even more prediction of future events in Acts chapter 2.

But what makes the Bible powerful? It's really by the hand of God, but maybe more accurately God-breathed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, we're going to see that association with breathing and wind with the Holy Spirit. It's really the same implication that we see in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, where it says all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

The Greek word there literally is God-breathed, which is the Holy Spirit, and is profitable for doctrine, teaching, for reproof or for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So if you want to know what's right, you read the Bible and you learn the Bible and the teachings of the Bible. That's how you are instructed in righteousness, and it's given to us by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

It's that same power, that coming upon of the Holy Spirit that happened in the Old Testament. Even though we're going to see the Spirit come in a sort of a new way in Acts chapter 2, still we saw it in the Old Testament. It was the coming upon, like in Judges 14:19 when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and he went down to Ashkelon and slew 30 men single-handedly.

So this idea of the coming upon of the Spirit, that's what would happen here. That's what Acts chapter 2 is all about. And Jesus reminded them to go and wait. Those were his instructions: go to Jerusalem and wait. And then he said, John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost coming upon you, the power, the dunamis. We've talked about that.

So we now come to this most important day here in Acts chapter 2. It's the day of Pentecost, the first event that ever happened in the church of Jesus Christ is right here on the day of Pentecost. And the church, of course, not a building, it's the people. And there's just 120 people gathered that are going to become the church as the Holy Spirit comes down here in Acts chapter 2 and comes upon them.

So let's just begin Acts chapter 2, verse 1. It says, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." I like this. Being in one accord, that's something that the church, even before they're filled with the Spirit, they already have this attribute, which you've got to commend them. Because getting 120 people together and agreeing on anything, that's hard enough.

But unity is really a mark of the church of Jesus Christ. Even before the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they're in one accord. They're like-minded. Paul would say, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded, of one accord, of one mind. Do nothing of yourself of strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind esteeming others better than ourselves. And that's what you have to do if you're going to be in one accord. You have to prefer others ahead of yourselves.

All that to say, here we see this is the day of Pentecost. Now, what is Pentecost? It's worth knowing what the Old Testament Pentecost—it's not just, what a coincidence. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down. I don't believe there's coincidence. When you're reading the Bible, I think there's very little, if there's any, coincidence. Most of it's God-winks.

God makes things happen. Was it a coincidence the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost? No. And I think there's a little reminder about why that's important. In the Hebrew feasts and festivals of the Old Testament, it's worth knowing these. If you want to understand the Bible better, it's worth knowing the seven main feasts of the Jews from the Old Testament because they have so much implication, not only in the Old Testament, but also in the New.

But let me just give you a quick summary of the seven feasts. The first one is probably the most famous, the Passover feast. It really was instituted there in Leviticus 23:5. And then you have, of course, the feast of Unleavened Bread. And then you have the feast of the Firstfruits. They all have their Hebrew names. Yom HaBikkurim, the feast of Firstfruits.

And then you've got the feast of Pentecost, or it's maybe better known in the Old Testament as the feast of Weeks. But it's the same thing. We'll tell you why it was called the feast of Weeks here in a second. But then you have the feast of Trumpets, and then the Day of Atonement, and then the feast of Tabernacles.

Basically, the thing that's kind of important to know is there's three feasts in the first month of the Jews, the month of Nisan. And then there's three in the seventh month, the month of Tishrei. But then there's one in between those, and that's the feast of Weeks. And that's the one we want to focus on here, the feast of Weeks or the day of Pentecost.

Pentecost means 50. Pentecost in the book of Acts took 50 days after the Passover, and that was true in the Old Testament as well. It would be like seven weeks. They would wait seven weeks. That'd be 49 days, and then plus one would be 50 from Passover to Pentecost.

Some of the feasts you had to go to be a part of, some were more voluntary. Passover you were compelled to do it. You had to do it if you were a Jewish male. And then also the feast of Pentecost was also a compulsory feast. Any able-bodied men, they had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Weeks. Very important.

Now, all these feasts have two components or functions that you should know about. One is commemorative; the second part of it is prophetic. That's a real important thing to understand in these feasts. Like for example, I think you probably many of you know the Passover. What was the Passover commemorating?

When the children of Israel were in Egypt, the spirit of death passed over their houses. And that's why it's called Passover. And they put blood on their doorposts. And anywhere the Lord saw the blood, the spirit of death would pass over that house and save the one alive and the oldest. And it was to be remembered for all their generations, a remembrance of the Passover there in Egypt.

So that's the commemorative component of it. But what's the prophetic component of the Passover? Jesus on the cross. Yeah, that's the easy one. You can see it even the way they put the blood on the door. If you kind of see how they did it, you'd see blood in the shape of a cross, which I think is not a coincidence. I think that's prophetic.

But I know that for sure. 1 Corinthians 5:7 tells us to purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. In the New Testament church and the Gentile church, which we are by Jews equated with leaven, keep that in mind because we're sinful Gentiles.

A lot of the Jews in the first century, they thought Gentiles existed to fuel the fire of hell. That's why we're on the earth, just to be logs thrown on the fire of hell. But the Lord had a much better plan than that, praise the Lord for that. But Paul would say Christ is our Passover.

Colossians 2, Paul would say to the church, let no man judge you concerning the new moons, the feasts, or the festivals or the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of Christ. So the Passover was a shadow. That's the commemorative part, and then the prophetic part is when Christ fulfilled the Passover, even as the firstborn was saved, we are saved by the blood of Christ. It's a beautiful prophetic picture.

So this idea of Pentecost, when was it first instituted? Well, that's in Leviticus chapter 23. Let's read this because I think this is important. "And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete." That's that seven weeks part. "Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you shall number 50 days, and you shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. And you shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths deals. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven. And they are the first fruits unto the Lord."

Okay, so commemoration and prophetic. What's the commemoration of the day of Pentecost? Well, the commemoration, even as the Passover was remembering the event in Egypt, well this commemorates the harvest. It was to celebrate the plenteous harvest of each year. That's the idea. That's what Pentecost really was.

And so it involved several things having to do with God's provision for food. The first thing I'd like you to note about this is that they were to offer a new meat offering. So the Jews were to commemorate and commanded to offer a new meat—and the word meat is probably better translated grain. It's like your newer translations would say a new grain offering unto the Lord, remembering the harvest, the harvest that was plenteous.

And then the second component of that was they take these two loaves of bread. And it says here that they were to take the bread and sort of wave it as an offering before the Lord, just thanking the Lord again for being the provision of their daily bread. That's part of the deal.

Now, does anybody notice something strange? If you're a Jew and you're reading this, you go, "Oy vey!" Leaven. It says here two-tenths deals, they shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baken with leaven. The other feasts, get the leaven out. Leaven is a type of what? Sin. That's right.

So suddenly you've got these two loaves of bread. I'm sure they're like, "We love the Passover. Instead of pita bread, they're getting a full-on King's Hawaiian loaf of roll or something. This is going to be great. It's got leaven in it. It's great." You say, "What does that have to do with anything?" Well, I believe this is all part of that prophetic picture of Pentecost in the future.

What's the new grain offering? How does that apply? Well, the prophetic part is the Jews and the first highlight there, the new grain offering, the Jews were commanded to present this new grain offering. And Jesus referred to the people that were unsaved as a harvest field that was ready to be harvested. Does that ring a bell?

And so suddenly Pentecost, if you already know the story of Acts 2, there's going to be a massive harvest. Maybe one of the biggest harvests in the first century of the church is in the first day when the Spirit comes down. And so this is that new harvest offering of new grain, if you would. And some would say this is what this is commemorating on Pentecost.

The second component, the two wave loaves, some see the two loaves of leavened bread to be a wave offering foreshadowing the time where the Messiah would make both Jew and Gentile one new man. Do you remember Ephesians 2, verses 14 and 15, where Paul explained that? You're no longer the people that are far off like the Gentiles, no longer just the Jew, but the Lord through the blood of Christ has made one new man. We would call that the church of Jesus Christ.

Now, the Jews would struggle with that. The Jews will struggle with Paul preaching to the Gentiles, and they'll say, "How could you have Gentiles, the filthy Goyim? How could you have them be part of the people of God?" Well, this Pentecost feast of the Old Testament is the picture.

In the same way that they would have said, "Why are we putting leaven in our loaves?" The reason: because the Gentiles were about to join together, two loaves becoming one. You say, "Well, Brett, we're forgiven too. We're Christians and we're forgiven of our sins." Yes, but you and I also know practically we're still sinners. That's why Paul would say, "I, Paul, am the chiefest of sinners, and I find no good thing in me." Practically, we're still sinful, leavened if you would. There's a good news: we're going to be unleavened when we see Him; we'll become like Him. Praise the Lord for that.

But this is a beautiful picture of what's coming in Acts chapter 2, that there's going to be a new harvest of people and it's going to be full of leaven, the Gentiles. And this idea of leaven as a picture of sin and corruption is representative of the church really, I think, in some ways.

Now, why would Jesus tell them to wait? This is an interesting part of this, the waiting. It's because he was going to do this harvest. He had a specific time and a place where Jesus wanted this to happen. And it goes back to what Jesus said in Matthew 9: "Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest is truly plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest."

Jesus looked out and saw all these people that needed to be saved and weren't yet saved. But he knew there's going to be a wildfire; the church would catch on and that many would be saved. And you and I, I think we're in a Pentecost type of time where the field is white with harvest and wouldn't it be great if the workers were not few but multiple and going out and preaching the gospel and letting us see a harvest that's white, that we can reap and see the fruit thereof.

That's what's going on here. And so why would he have them wait? God's going to do a new thing starting on the day of Pentecost. It's actually what we dispensationalists would call a new dispensation. God is not changing his mind, but God throughout the ages seems to put together seasons of time that represent a different sort of way.

The Bible talks about how in various dispensations of time—that's Bible language—the Lord does different things. And so, like for example, let me just give you a few of them. One dispensation was the season or the dispensation of the law. That's the Old Testament time where the Jews basically came from being innocent, the age of innocence. That's the first dispensation. That was before they sinned.

And then the age of conscience. That's after they sinned, and there was kind of a self-governance. Then there was the age of human government. And that's when you saw the whole Babel thing and people trying to govern themselves and govern themselves to God. Age of government—that didn't work.

And then the age of promise, where Genesis 12, Abrahamic promise given to the Jews as the covenants and what have you. But then after that, because of the covenants with Abraham, that brings in—and this is a big one—the age of the law. When Moses received the law from God, and this was an age from the giving of the law in Mount Sinai all the way to the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. They were under the law. The Jews were under the law to that day.

And then what changes from the age of the law to the what we call the age of grace, otherwise known as the church age? What ushered that in? The day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. That's why Paul would write to the Galatians, "We are no longer under the law, which was our schoolmaster to drive us to Jesus Christ."

So this is kind of how dispensationalism works. It divides time sort of in a chronological time where God is saying, "I'm going to move in the world," and you say, "Well, what's the purpose of that? Is God changing?" No, I believe God is going through a pre-ordained plan so that when everything's all said and done at the end, nobody's going to be able to say, "We never got a chance to do it this way," or "We never got a chance to do it that way." Actually, you kind of see a beautiful wisdom of God obviously with the various dispensations of time.

So that's just kind of a really quick introduction to dispensationalism. But the reason that's important is Acts chapter 2 is a shift of gears, a big one. After thousands of years of the law, now we're in the age of grace or the church age, as we would call it.

And I'm thankful for that. The law kills, the Bible says, and no one was ever successful in keeping the law. And if you're going to try to be saved by the law, you've got to not just keep a few points, you've got to keep all points of the law, which has been proven for thousands of years to be impossible. And so praise the Lord for the age of grace.

By the way, those people of the law age, none of them were saved by keeping the law. So how were they saved? Through faith by grace. It's the same thing. You say, "Well, Brett, I don't get it." No. Remember, Abraham believed God, so it was counted to him for righteousness. But if you read the story in Romans, Paul says it's because Jesus died for Abraham too and was saved by grace. So everybody's saved by grace. It's just Abraham and those guys lived in a different dispensation.

I really like living in this dispensation. Aren't you glad we're in the age of grace where we can know we're saved by God's grace and we don't have to try to keep the 613? I'm just glad we don't have to do that. Anyway, so that's what's going on here. We've got this big harvest now, which is a beautiful picture really of Pentecost.

So the timeframe, if you kind of picture it, remember we learned in verse 3 of chapter 1, he was around 40 days. Remember Jesus resurrected, and he was around these people for 40 days. More than 500 people saw him at one time. Then he was ascended into heaven, and then 10 days after that is when the Pentecost happened.

If you're just trying to get your head around the timeframe of this, so Jesus was with them, then he ascends into heaven, and 10 days later after he told them, "Now go wait in Jerusalem. Go and wait in Jerusalem." So this whole event happens 10 days after Jesus ascended into heaven.

Well, so it says there in verse 2, "And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting." Now, what do you picture this, a rushing mighty wind? It's like they're sitting in there and all of a sudden it was windy outside? It's windy outside. Someone look out the window.

Well, the implication here is maybe that there was a wind even inside the house. You're saying, "What in the world?" But here's what's even weirder: when you look up the Greek words for rushing mighty wind, it's way worse than you're picturing because the rushing mighty wind, here's the Greek words. The first word, phero, it means to carry away, to literally move you around. Like the wind is so much it can move stuff around. That's that first word, phero.

The mighty is biaios, which is violent, forcible, a wind. So it's not just a little whoosh. No, it's like whoosh. It's quite a deal. And then the word wind means wind or breath, which is kind of typical. But those first two words are really important. The wind that was violent and forcible enough to move people around perhaps, or at least things around.

This might explain why in a minute we're going to see so many people come over and check out what in the world's going on. It was enough of a deal where a bunch of people came, by the thousands they came.

So Jesus referenced this idea of the wind. Maybe this was a clue for them because Jesus already sort of primed the pump, didn't he, there in John 3:8? He said, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell where it cometh from and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit."

Jesus connected the dots. The Spirit is like the wind. I wonder if they're like, "Oh, is this it?" The wind starts getting really kind of crazy. And then suddenly the next thing that's going to happen is the coming of the Spirit. So this is a little bit of maybe a precursor to what's going to happen.

Now, don't forget the Hebrew and the Greek words for wind in the Old Testament and the new. It's linked to the idea of the Spirit. The ruach, which is the wind, that's the Hebrew word of the Old Testament, which is also mind, spirit, or Spirit of God. So it's all in the same. Spirit of God, wind. Same in the New Testament Greek, pneuma, third person of the holy trinity, and it means breath or blast or breeze.

So this idea of wind is something that's all through the Bible linked to the Holy Ghost, to say the least. But in the second part of this in verse 2, it says, "And it was filled all the house where they were sitting." So that means it wasn't just windy outside; it was in the house. And what were they all doing in there? Were they flopping around in the floor? I say that jokingly, but no, they were actually sitting, it says there. The Holy Spirit came upon them.

It says here what's going to happen in verse 3: "And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Wow. Did you ever wonder what this looked like? Flames of fire over their heads?

It's interesting because fire is somewhat of a type of the Spirit in the power of the Spirit. We see that in the Bible. But the Holy Spirit coming upon them here in Acts chapter 2 is the start of something new God is doing that he told them about. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come upon you.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador providing the vivid images surrounding the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, empowering them to spread the good news far and wide. And there's much more to come from today's word as we'll continue this study of Acts chapter 2 next time. And I trust you'll stay right there as Pastor Brett will be with me in just a moment.

But first, today's word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon, where Pastor Brett Meador's the senior pastor. Our vision on today's word is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful verse-by-verse study of the Bible. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett has joined me now.

Brett Meador: Brett, as we've been studying the book of Acts, we're right at a point where the Holy Spirit rushes upon the believers gathered on Pentecost, and we're seeing some pretty dramatic preaching by the apostle Peter, aren't we?

That's right, Kurt. You know, the book of Acts chapter 2 is really the turning point in my opinion of the whole Bible. You've got the Holy Spirit coming upon the believers just like Jesus promised. He told them to go wait in Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit would come upon them.

And then suddenly you see this kind of radical event: the tongues of fire and speaking languages of other nations. But maybe the pinnacle of that was when Peter started preaching. The same guy just a few weeks earlier denied Christ, now he's standing up boldly preaching.

And here's what I love about it. It wasn't polished; it wasn't fancy. But it was powerful. And it was because it was Spirit-filled and centered on Jesus Christ. You know, the result would be 3000 people came to know the Lord in one day. That's an evangelistic crusade right there.

And what's really important is what happens after that. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer. In other words, it wasn't just a moment where it was a big emotional thing, but it became a lifestyle for these people. Great reminder really for us today. You know, the Christian life isn't about just a powerful experience; it's about a steady daily devotion to the Lord and to each other. And that's what we're going to enjoy as we study the book of Acts.

Guest (Male): That's excellent and a good encouragement as we do continue looking at the acts of the apostles here on today's word. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for that. And if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or today's word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue looking at how the Holy Spirit is essential in the church for living a life for Jesus. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.