Pentecost/Shavuot

Pentecost is our word for the Hebrew word “Shavuot.” Because we go by the Roman calendar (solar calendar), we celebrated Pentecost earlier this year. According to the Hebrew calendar (lunisolar calendar), Pentecost starts tonight. 

It is celebrated by Jews as a two day holiday, this year on June 11-13. It begins at sunset Tuesday June 11, and ends at nightfall Thursday June 13. It comes after 49 days of “counting of the Omer” (sheaf) after Passover. This amounts to 7 weeks. (Leviticus 23:15-16) Thus, Pentecost (Shavuot) is called the “Festival of Weeks.” (Deuteronomy 16:16) The word “Pentecost” means “fiftieth day,” because it is the 50th day after Passover. "Shavuot" means "weeks." 

After God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, it took seven weeks to reach the mountain where God had spoken to Moses from the burning bush. God had told Moses he would return with the people to this same mountain, which was Mount Sinai. 

The Israelites left Egypt on the first day of Passover, and on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) they assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai (Horeb) and received from God His commandments.

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. ... And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." - Exodus 3:1, 12 

It was God’s timing that He would pour out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Shavuot), the same day when years earlier He gave His Law on Mount Sinai. This was a fulfillment of prophecy of Jeremiah. Through His Holy Ghost, God’s Law would now be written on our hearts. Through His new covenant - baptism in Jesus name for the remission of sins - our sin and iniquity is forgiven and remembered no more.

"Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31:31-34 

Peter preached this message of God’s new covenant on the day of Pentecost.

"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." - Acts 2:38-39