We are preparing for Shavuot' and looking forward to it, and I thought we would go over some scriptures today discussing this feast. This is a little different from the feasts we have in the spring and the fall. It's just one day.
There are actually three major feasts. There is Passover which occurred about some 40 some days ago, and then we have Pentecost which is coming up here in a just over a week. Then in the fall, the Feast of Tabernacles.
So it's one of the three major festivals mentioned in the scriptures. So we are going to talk today about Shavuot' also known as Pentecost.
First of all, we'll go over the definitions and different names of this feast. In Hebrew it's called Shavuot. In Greek (Hellene) it's called Pentecost. In the English it's called the Feast of Weeks or Weeks.
In Greek, Penteconta means 50 and then Pentecoste, a feminine word means 50th; taking its cue from the Hebrew which uses Shavuot' in the feminine also.
So we got our word in English 'Pentecost' from the Greek, which means 50th. Then we have Shavua in Hebrew which means Week, and then the plural Shavuot, means Weeks and that's plural feminine. The ot' ending is a feminine ending of a Hebrew word; 'im or eem' is the masculine rendering.
For many of us the Shavuot is going to begin a week from tomorrow. That will be the 23rd of what the world calls May. To properly understand this and how to arrive at the timing of Shavuot' we first need to understand the proper timing of the feast of Passover.
We are going to look at some scriptures here. It's talking about the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread.
Deuteronomy 16:8 - "Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there [shall be] a sacred assembly to YAHWEH your Elohim. You shall do no work [on it].
Deuteronomy 16:9 - "You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from [the time] you begin [to put] the sickle to the grain.
So now we're talking about the Feast of Weeks. The time that they would Harvest the barley was the time of the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Then, looking at the Feast of Weeks:
Deuteronomy 16:10 - "Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to YAHWEH your Elohim with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as YAHWEH your Elohim blesses you.
Deuteronomy 16:11 - "You shall rejoice before YAHWEH your Elohim, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who [is] within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who [are] among you, at the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide.
And so seven weeks are counted from the time that the cycle is put to the grain; that's the barley harvest, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Looking at Lev 23 verses 6 through 11.
Leviticus 23:6 - `And on the fifteenth day of the same month [is] the Feast of Unleavened Bread to YAHWEH; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
Leviticus 23:7 - `On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.
Leviticus 23:8 - `But you shall offer an offering made by fire to YAHWEH for seven days. The seventh day [shall be] a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work [on it].'"
Leviticus 23:9 - And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 23:10 - "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: `When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
Leviticus 23:11 - `He shall wave the sheaf before YAHWEH, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
So, were going to look at a calendar in a moment. And count each Sabbath until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath. But Lets first pick it up at verse 12.
Leviticus 23:12 - `And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to YAHWEH.
Leviticus 23:13 - `Its grain offering [shall be] two-tenths [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to YAHWEH, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering [shall be] of wine, one-fourth of a hin.
Leviticus 23:14 - `You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Elohim; [it shall be] a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Leviticus 23:15 - `And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
Leviticus 23:16 - `Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to YAHWEH.
And so we count 50 days after the Sabbath that occurs during the Feast of Unleavened Bread to arrive at the proper date for the Feast of Weeks. This was called the 'Counting of The Omer.'
So we're going to look at a calendar here. Here we have on this particular calendar the third month of 2010 of what the world calls March. That's actually when the Passover and Unleavened Bread began.
Passover was on the 29/30th (night/day) and then the first day of unleavened bread was on the 30/31st and then the Last Day of Unleavened Bread was on the 5/6th (night/day) of the fourth month of 2010 of what the world calls April.
So the Sabbath that was within that week was on the day of the 2/3rd (night/day). So from the day after that, you begin your count for the Feast of Weeks.
You count seven Sabbath's until you arrive at the 49th day, seven times seven. And then you count one more day to arrive at 50 days. And then you will be at the Feast of Pentecost or Shavuot.
So were going to count this out for you. There's the first Sabbath on the 9/10th (night/day) day of the fourth month; that was last month.
And then the second Sabbath on the 16/17th (night/day), the third Sabbath on the 23/24th (night/day), the fourth Sabbath on the 30/1st (night/day) of what the world calls May.
The fifth Sabbath on the 7th/8th, the sixth Sabbath on the 14/15th (night/day) and the seventh Sabbath on the 21/22nd (night/day).
That is seven weeks just as the scriptures told us, to count seven Sabbath's until you arrive at the day after the seventh Sabbath, and there we have Shavuot.
Now this is all according to our roman calendar. One thing I'm wanting to do is focus more on Yahweh's calendar.
We are so caught up in our Roman world that we live in, that we sometimes don't pay enough attention to Yahweh's timing. And it may be that in the days to come we made need to be right on track with Yahweh's timing; especially here toward the end of the age.
Things are going to occur according to His time table. Not our own. Not Roman calendars established by Caesar Augustus or the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory.
So we're going to have to know Yahweh's calendar and keep track of what day we are on. And that's something I will admit I have not been very good at.
I can get the Feast days, but on any given day if someone were to ask me what day it is on Yahweh's calendar, I confess that I don't really know most of the time.
And that's another thing, if our birthdays, most of us establish 'we were born on' and we've got our Roman calendar date that we are observing our birthday but Yahweh's calendar says our age changes at another time according to His calendar.
And so we've had to go back and find out by looking at the Moon data in our location, what was our real birthdays. And so we discovered because we were keeping the calendar incorrectly; when my daughter Kara was born, we didn't realize it, but she was born on the DAY OF ATONEMENT.
Little surprises like that, when you go back and check, and you realize... You know the Day of Atonement has always been special for her. For some reason. She has marked that for turning points in her life and so I think that's one reason, quite possibly.
We want to try and get on Yahweh's calendar and so in light of that, we're going to look at this again. This time we're going to look at it from Yahweh's perspective.
We know that His year begins, His first month, correlating to the Roman month of March. Passover is on the 14th day there. And the 15th day is the first day of Unleavened Bread. And in that particular month, the 18th day is when the Sabbath fell.
And currently you see down at the bottom there, the third month, first day of the month, we are currently on the first day of the third month according to the local moon sighting. It was seen last night, so we are on the first day of the month. And on the third month.
So were going to count here through the Sabbath days. We're going to count to seven.
And our first one was on the 25th day of the first month, our second Sabbath on the second day of the second month, the third Sabbath on the 9th day of the second month, the fourth Sabbath on the 16th day of the second month, the fifth
Sabbath on the 23rd day of the second month, the sixth Sabbath - that's where we're at right now, the first day of the third month, next the seventh Sabbath will be on the 8th day of the third month, and then finally the day after the seventh Sabbath being Shavuot' and this time it's on the ninth day of the third month.
So this is a very good way to reckon things according to Yahweh's ways and I enjoy that. I enjoy focusing on that.
Now we're going to look at some more scripture here. We know now how to arrive at the proper date of the Feast of Shavuot and we're going to read about what kind of things that we are actually going to do on that Day.
Leviticus 23:17 - `You shall bring from your dwellings two wave [loaves] of two-tenths [of an ephah]. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. [They are] the firstfruits to YAHWEH.
And so two loaves are to be brought before Yahweh from the first fruits of the land. This is the wheat harvest.
The barley harvest occurred 50 days prior when they waved the sheaf of barley before Yahweh. So the barley harvest is for the Feast of Passover and the wheat harvest is the Feast of Pentecost or Shavuot.
And so two loaves are brought (almost two gallons of wheat) for these loaves. These are wheat offerings. The wheat is brought to the Priest. Other offering that were brought...
Leviticus 23:18 - `And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be [as] a burnt offering to YAHWEH, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to YAHWEH.
Leviticus 23:19 - `Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering.
Leviticus 23:20 - `The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits [as] a wave offering before YAHWEH, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to YAHWEH for the priest.
Leviticus 23:21 - `And you shall proclaim on the same day [that] it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work [on it. It shall be] a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
So what does that mean "customary work"? According to Exodus Chapter 12:16... This is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Exodus 12:16 - `On the first day [there shall be] a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but [that] which everyone must eat -- that only may be prepared by you.
And so we are permitted to do what's necessary for us to prepare our meals on this Day. It is a Feast Day after all. And so it is ok to cook on the Feast Days.
And this is a day when there was a Holy Convocation commanded. No customary work was permitted but everyone was allowed to prepare the necessary meals and so on.
So how about other things? We were supposed to bring our first fruits from the harvest. Do we need to bake two loaves of bread. I attended a meeting one time where a brother baked a couple loaves of bread and offered them up to Yahweh.
He waved them. However, if we look at this and think about it a little deeper, it was not possible for everyone to bring two loaves of bread and all those other offerings. Otherwise the Priests would be eating millions of loaves of bread.
So what I think they would do was bring their first fruits of their wheat to Yahweh. It would be brought to the storehouses and from that the bread would be made and two loaves would be baked and the waved to Yahweh.
Continuing here in Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 16:9 - "You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from [the time] you begin [to put] the sickle to the grain.
Deuteronomy 16:10 - "Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to YAHWEH your Elohim with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as YAHWEH your Elohim blesses you.
Deuteronomy 16:16 - "Three times a year all your males shall appear before YAHWEH your Elohim in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before YAHWEH empty-handed.
So there are three Feasts where Yahweh is requiring a freewill offering. And they were supposed to give as they were blessed according to verses 10 and 17.
Deuteronomy 16:17 - "Every man [shall give] as he is able, according to the blessing of YAHWEH your Elohim which He has given you.
I think it's a good idea for us to take a portion of our income and dedicate it to Yahweh on this Day. Using it for some kind of holy purpose such as giving to the poor or some kind of ministry, whether it be our own or someone else's ministry you respect as being the work of Yahweh.
While we don't maybe have any... maybe if we have any wheat that is growing in our pasture or wherever... we're at our farm, I'm not really sure, we can't really bring that necessarily to a Priest...
What I've done in the past is just lifted it up to Yahweh and given it to Him and just kind of thrown it up in the air, but I'm open to any ideas on that.
You know we need to do something to communicate that we're not trying to take Yahweh's first fruits and we want that to be given to Him and dedicated to Him.
So there are things that we can do. We can rest. We can keep a Holy Convocation to Yahweh as He commanded. We can rejoice for the harvest that he brought forth from the earth.
How many of us have eaten bread this past year? Probably most of us have eaten bread and lots of it, unless we're allergic or something.
So this is a time of year when winter wheat harvest is ready at least in the climate of Israel and some of our climates as well depending on where you live and so it's a time to give Yahweh thanks for the goodness He is doing for us.
Allot of us may not think in terms of farming. We're so caught up in our houses and our concrete and asphalt world and everything happens to be in some kind of package at the local store, Wal-Mart or wherever.
You may not think in terms that this is Yahweh's provision for us and we need to be thankful for it, and this is a time when we are called to do just that.
Farming has been sort of put down a little bit. People who work on farms sometimes are viewed as unintelligent or uneducated or set back in some other era. But without the farmers we wouldn't be able to eat and that's the bottom line.
We rejoice that Yahweh is providing the food through the farmers and not look down on them but to be thankful. They're planting and harvesting and sometimes making very little money doing it. Or they're raising animals that we're eating.
So it's Yahweh ultimately that does give the increase and this is a time for us to be thankful to Yahweh for providing that bread from the earth and providing that harvest, otherwise we wouldn't be able to eat.
And so He's providing the bread from the earth and actually there is a lesson in that in the spiritual sense as well.
I want to take a look at some of the events that occurred around the time of Pentecost. Which is also around the time of the wheat harvest.
Now the giving of the Torah at Sinai was in all likelihood in the third month.
Exodus 19:1 - In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came [to] the Wilderness of Sinai.
So since Yahweh gave the Ten Commandments it what appears to be just a few days after this. It's generally believed that Yahweh could have given the Ten Commandments on the Day of Shavuot.
You noticed when I showed you Yahweh's calendar earlier that this Feast of Shavuot' was in the third month.
So we know that somewhere in the beginning of the third month we're going to find the Feast of Shavuot and here we have Yahweh around that time just about ready to give the Ten Commandments which is in Exodus chapter 20.
So for that reason allot of people believe (and it does make sense) that He could have done that very thing.
Another event that occurred around this time is Yahweh's decision to give Israel a King.
1Samuel 12:13 - "Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen [and] whom you have desired. And take note, YAHWEH has set a king over you.
1Samuel 12:14 - "If you fear YAHWEH and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of YAHWEH, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following YAHWEH your Elohim.
1Samuel 12:15 - "However, if you do not obey the voice of YAHWEH, but rebel against the commandment of YAHWEH, then the hand of YAHWEH will be against you, as [it was] against your fathers.
1Samuel 12:16 - "Now therefore, stand and see this great thing which YAHWEH will do before your eyes:
See verse 17, (that's how we know) because it's the time of wheat harvest, that it is nearing the time of Shavuot.
1Samuel 12:17 - "[Is] today not the wheat harvest? I will call to YAHWEH, and He will send thunder and rain, that you may perceive and see that your wickedness [is] great, which you have done in the sight of YAHWEH, in asking a king for yourselves."
1Samuel 12:18 - So Samuel called to YAHWEH, and YAHWEH sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared YAHWEH and Samuel.
This is the time of the Shavuot' and Yahweh is giving a King to the Children of Israel even though He didn't want that. Sometimes Yahweh gives us things that we ask and it may not be what He really desires. Another time He gave them quail until it came out of their nose, it was so overwhelming.
So the next event that occurred around this time was the return of the Ark from the Philistines who had previously captured it and were plagued as a result.
1Samuel 6:11 - And they set the ark of YAHWEH on the cart, and the chest with the gold rats and the images of their tumors.
1Samuel 6:12 - Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, [and] went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. And the lords of the Philistines went after them to the border of Beth Shemesh.
1Samuel 6:13 - Now [the people of] Beth Shemesh [were] reaping their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see [it].
So this was a time also around the time of Shavuot. Shavuot' was near because we see them reaping their wheat harvest in verse 13.
The next scripture was a very important time. The context here in 1Chronicles chapter 21 is Yahweh was pouring out His wrath upon the Children of Israel because of David's sin of counting the people. So at this time when this plague was going on and David was watching people die, he said
1Chronicles 21:17 - And David said to Elohim, "Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O YAHWEH my Elohim, be against me and my father's house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued."
Now I find that very interesting that David took the position of an intercessor and said "let Your hand be against me and my father's house" and it turned out that it was through the seed of David that the Messiah came and all the iniquity of the world was laid on Him.
So on both him and his father's house he asked for this. In the very next scripture as a result of David saying this,/ it says...
1Chronicles 21:18 - Therefore, the angel of YAHWEH commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to YAHWEH on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Chronicles 21:19 - So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of YAHWEH.
1Chronicles 21:20 - Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons [who were] with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat.
1Chronicles 21:18 - Therefore, the angel of YAHWEH commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to YAHWEH on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Now he chose that threshing floor for some reason.
1Chronicles 21:19 - So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of YAHWEH.
1Chronicles 21:20 - Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons [who were] with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat.
For some reason he wasn't afraid or he figured that, 'what good does it do to hide from the Angel of Yahweh'?
1Chronicles 21:21 - Then David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed before David with [his] face to the ground.
1Chronicles 21:22 - Then David said to Ornan, "Grant me the place of [this] threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to YAHWEH. You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people."
1Chronicles 21:23 - And Ornan said to David, "Take [it] to yourself, and let my lord the king do [what is] good in his eyes. Look, I [also] give [you] the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give [it] all."
1Chronicles 21:24 - Then King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy [it] for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for YAHWEH, nor offer burnt offerings with [that which] costs [me] nothing."
So David refused to get it for free. He knew what an offering was. An offering is when you give and it costs you something.
So this was at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. Which is an interesting thing because later in scripture when Solomon was building the temple...
2Chronicles 3:1 - Now Solomon began to build the house of YAHWEH at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where [YAHWEH] had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
And so it was that place near the time of Shavuot, because he was threshing wheat, that Yahweh had established the location for His Temple and also maybe that's when He chose Jerusalem. That's what I'm thinking.
It very well could be at that time because that's when He said 'build the altar right here, this is where I want it.'
So there are also spiritual meanings to Pentecost/Shavuot, and particularly the wheat harvest. In Matthew Chapter 3:5-12 we read about John the Baptist and he is Baptizing in the region of Judea in the Jordan and it says...
Matthew 3:5 - Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him
Matthew 3:6 - and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
Matthew 3:7 - But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:8 - "Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,
Matthew 3:9 - "and do not think to say to yourselves, `We have Abraham as [our] father.' For I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Matthew 3:10 - "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:11 - "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Matthew 3:12 - "His winnowing fan [is] in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
There's that threshing floor again. So that's the Baptism by Fire when the chaff is burnt away. And so we are this wheat harvest.
And in another parable Yahushua gave in Matthew 13:24-30...
Matthew 13:24 - Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
Matthew 13:25 - "but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Matthew 13:26 - "But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
Matthew 13:27 - "So the servants of the owner came and said to him, `Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
Matthew 13:28 - "He said to them, `An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, `Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'
Matthew 13:29 - "But he said, `No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Matthew 13:30 - `Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
Now interestingly tares which grow, are nearly initially indistinguishable from the wheat. It's when they begin to bear seed that the difference between wheat and tares are revealed in the kernels.
So we need to think of ourselves in spiritual terms that we are considered to be like the wheat harvest; and we don't want to be the tare harvest, do we? We want to be the planting of Yahweh and not the planting of His enemy.
We are in the world today but we are not of the world. There are people who are among us and sometimes they might even be in our assemblies who maybe are not wheat.
So we need to be aware of that and when the fruit starts to bear; then we will see 'well these are not wheat kernels, these are from a different seed altogether.'
So one day Yahweh will come and He will separate the wheat from the tares. Yahweh knows them that are His and He will determine who is His and who is not. For now, it's a little bit hard for us to tell sometimes. We need discernment.
Now another important event that we all know about that happened on the Day of Shavuot' or Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit was given in the book of Acts chapter two.
This is a time of blessing: the outpouring of Yahweh's Spirit upon His people. It says...
Acts 2:1 - When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Now why are the disciples all gathering for one of Yahweh's Feast Days? Could it be that they were keeping it? All of them were there. 120 of them were all gathered to keep Yahweh's Feast Days. And this is one of them; a very important one.
And if they had not been gathering together to observe this Feast Day, then there wouldn't have been 120 people there for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them.
So the disciples of Yahushua were gathered together. They were all in one accord and Yahweh gave an outpouring of His Spirit which ultimately resulted in 3000 people being Baptized in the name of Yahushua Ha Mashiakh.
So we're going to read about this starting in Acts 2:38.
Acts 2:38 - Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:39 - "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as YAHWEH our Elohim will call."
Acts 2:40 - And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation."
Acts 2:41 - Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added [to them].
So 3000 souls were saved.
Now this is in contrast to when Yahweh gave the Torah from Mount Sinai and they disobeyed Yahweh and worshipped a golden calf, soon after the giving of Yahweh's Ten Commandments, which was also around the time of Shavuot' or Pentecost.
And there were 3000 people who died as a result of Yahweh's judgment. You can read about that in the Book of Exodus. But I think we know that the Torah, because we're not obedient to it, cannot give us life.
So we need the Spirit of Yahweh dwelling in us through Yahushua the Messiah to give us life.
It gives us life because while the Torah can show us what righteousness is, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (Yahushua dwelling in us) can give us the righteousness we need to be found acceptable to Him.
So we can praise Yahweh for this time of Shavuot' because of His mercy toward us through Yahushua our Master. The Torah shows us the true path of life but it can't give it to us because of our disobedience.
It can only show us the way of life. It cannot give us life. There's a disconnect. But the Spirit of Yahweh dwelling in us through the ministry of Yahushua our Master gives us the life we need and the righteousness we need to be called his children and to dwell with Him forever.
I find this to be quite interesting because we had the time of Passover when Yahushua died at the exact hour they were killing lambs in Jerusalem on the 14th day of Aviv.
And then He was in the grave and then on the first day after the Sabbath that occurred during this week, (and I believe this) that Yahushua ascended to Heaven on the first day of the week.
If you look at John chapter 20:17
John 20:17 - Yahushua said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, `I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and [to] My Elohim and your Elohim.'"
So Yahushua appeared to Mary and He actually had not yet ascended after He had resurrected (he did not ascend right away). But He was raised and was to ascend to His Father and His Elohim and our Elohim.
He ascended to Him and that was on the Day of First Fruits: the time when they waved the wave sheaf offering to Yahweh.
In fact if you look at 1Corinthians chapter 15:20
1Corinthians 15:20 - But now Messiah is risen from the dead, [and] has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
And so he's called the first fruits. He's called the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. And so He was actually raised or He ascended on the Day of First Fruits.
Now we also according to the Book of James are called a first fruits as well. It says...
James 1:18 - Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
And so, how is it that Messiah is called the first fruits and yet we're called the first fruits also? Well Yahushua taught us in the Book of John 12:24. He said...
John 12:24 - "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
So unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it can't bear fruit. You know a grain of wheat will be softened by the water. It will soften the hard shell so that everything but the germ inside the plant actually begins to decompose.
It's this decomposed material that becomes the first nourishment of the germ which then grows into a plant that will again produce more wheat. So what He was saying was true. It goes into the ground and it dies.
Then it remains and begins to grow as a result of the blessing of Yahweh and produces much more grain.
So looking at Romans 6:4-6. We know that Yahushua died and as a result of His death he was able to bring forth much more, wasn't He? And also this is true about us. It says...
Romans 6:4 - Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Messiah was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:5 - For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection,
Romans 6:6 - knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
We are not a slave of sin. We have a choice. We are not bound. Why? Because it's no longer we who live. It's Yahushua living in us. We were buried with Him through Baptism. And just as Messiah was raised from the dead, we also walk in a newness of life. And that's the blessing of the good news.
And so we also being wheat, have died with Him. And when we die with Him we will bear more fruit as well.
Another scripture here in Colossians 3:1-3...
Colossians 3:1 - If then you were raised with Messiah, seek those things which are above, where Messiah is, sitting at the right hand of Elohim.
Colossians 3:2 - Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:3 - For you died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim.
And so because we walk in this newness of life, because it's no longer we living: it's we died and Yahushua lives in us. If that be the case, if He's living through us, then we're going to walk in a totally new way. We're going to think on totally new things.
Things on this earth are just temporary, secondary, and are nothing because our eyes are focused on the heavenly things.
Another scripture in Ephesians 2:4-6...
Ephesians 2:4 - But Elohim, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Ephesians 2:5 - even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved),
Ephesians 2:6 - and raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in the heavenly [places] in Messiah Yahushua,
And so we are in the Spirit. We are seated in the heavenly places with the Messiah. Wow! It just amazes me that that's how Yahweh sees us. He sees us seated next to Messiah. That's how He sees us.
So what are we focusing on? Are we looking on the earth, or are we looking toward the heavenly things?
So Baptism represents our death with Him and us being raised with Him, seated in the heavenlies by the power of the Ruakh Ha Khodesh, the Holy Spirit.
So with these things in mind, think now. It was on the Day of Shavuot, the Day of Pentecost, that the first fruits of the Apostles ministry was revealed and that 3000 souls were Baptized into the Messiah's death and raised in His resurrection.
So Shavuot' is marking some very very important times. Think back now. We've gone over some scriptures on different events that occurred.
The giving of the Torah. The time when the Ark was brought back and was spared. The time when Yahweh chose to allow there to be a King to reign over the people of Israel.
And the time when Yahweh chose Jerusalem or at least chose the place where He was going to have His Temple established.
So all these events actually kind of lead up to the Messiah. Because, because they chose a King, He sent Yahushua.
Because He chose Jerusalem, a Temple was dwelling there and now the Temple of the Holy Spirit is us. We are the Temple of the Holy Spirit because of Yahushua our King reigning within us on the throne of our hearts.
It's an awesome picture. And the giving of the Ruakh Ha Khodesh, filling in us the New Covenant, which says that 'His word will dwell in our hearts and be written there.
So with Shavuot' being the time of the giving of the Ten Commandments and Shavuot' being the time of the giving of the Ruakh Ha Khodesh and the Word of Yahweh (Yahushua the Messiah) who is the Living Word dwelling there; the Word of Yahweh being dwelled in our hearts.
We are facing and receiving the same experiences. This giving of the Torah into our hearts. Shavuot' being a time when we can commemorate that, and be thankful to Yahweh that He chose a King that was righteous.
All the other Kings failed. They had some area where they were unrighteous. So He gave us a righteous King and He wants to reign right now in our hearts.
He wants to reign today. He wants to reign. He wants to make sure that He's the King. He wants us to recognize that He's the King right now reigning on the throne of our hearts today. He's already King. We just have to recognize it. We have to live our lives as though He is.
What about our sin? You notice that Shavuot, with the two loaves that are waved up before Yahweh: the two loaves. Do they have leavening in it? Yes they do. They have leavening. So we're not without sin. He's perfect, but we are still in the process of being perfected.
I'm not without sin yet. And there's not anyone listening to my voice today who is without sin.
Because even if you can't think of anything that you've committed in the last few days or whatever, there are areas where Yahweh wants to show you, you still need refinement.
We are not a perfect body. We're a broken body.
Now look at 1Corinthians, and look how messed up they were. We're also messed up. We have to be humble and admit that.
It's only by the grace of Yahweh that we're gonna make it. And He will give His grace to one who is sensitive to His will, that wants to do His will, and wants to learn how they're failing Him, and wants to grow.
So these two loaves which are waved before Yahweh are loaves of leavening, the wheat harvest of which we are.
Now this is in contrast to the Passover. At the Passover you actually eat wheat. Yahushua was a son of man. We partake of the wheat BUT it's without leaven. No leavening. Leavened bread is forbidden for seven days.
Lets go back to a scripture here, 1Corinthians 5:6-7...
1Corinthians 5:6 - Your glorying [is] not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
1Corinthians 5:7 - Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
What, to teach us that we need to get rid of the old leaven.
The wheat is leavened which shows that Yahweh does accept us even though we're not perfected. But why? Well during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, in order to make the bread, you had to use the wheat from the previous year that you gathered during Pentecost or some other previous Pentecost.
In order to make that bread you had to use wheat from a previous harvest and at that time when we come together to partake of Yahushua's body we got to get rid of the leavening because He has no leavening.
We are His body. We are the body of Messiah. So we're taught that the Messiah, each year takes that leaven out of us when we partake of Him. When He's dwelling in us, He is cleansing us of our leavening.
He is the Passover sacrifice that's offered for us. Thank you Father. As we eat unleavened bread for seven days, I thought maybe this is the 7000 years that man dwells on the earth and is in need of continual cleansing from leaven.
Brothers and sisters, one day that trumpet's going to sound.
At the Feast of Trumpets that trumpet's going to sound and Yahushua's going to be reigning over all the earth for a thousand years till He puts every enemy under His feet and the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
And man will have all His sin atoned for, the Day of Atonement, that we might have full access to the throne room and never have to worry about defiling Him.
Because the Messiah entered that for us with His own blood, so we might be granted access to reign in the heavenlies with Him. Literally.
The heavens and the earth will be cleansed and made new, and then the Tabernacle of Yahweh will be with men. That's the goal. That's the goal.
Sin has separated us from our Elohim. Yahushua has reconciled us to our Elohim. Beautiful. Until then we have some work to do.
There are some who say, "Oh yeah Yahushua, He fulfilled all that. Wasn't that already fulfilled? We don't have to pay any attention to Shavuot' and these Feasts."
This whole idea that fulfill means done away with is foreign to scripture. Just because Yahushua has fulfilled something doesn't mean you cease to observe it. In fact I get choked up thinking about these things. How beautiful Messiah is pictured in these Feasts.
How many different layers of blessing? How many different ways that He reveals Himself and reveals His plan of salvation to save us from our own pit that we dug ourselves into.
These things ought to make us want to keep these Feast Days so that we might learn more about Him. It's not a burden. It's a blessing.
Baptism is also a picture. It's a picture that we die and we're resurrected and become incorruptible as He. And that's what those things are representing.
So does that mean we don't keep the Baptism commandment because that's been fulfilled already? Didn't Yahushua say "I must fulfill all righteousness"? That's one of the things He fulfilled. Does that mean we do away with it?
No. In fact it means we do it. We want to live as He lived. We want to do the things that He did. We have to suffer as He suffered. We have to proclaim the word of Yahweh as He proclaimed.
We have a Kingdom that we have to proclaim.
And we have a life. He wants to relive His life in us, because we are His body, and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Today He's the same as He was when He walked the earth with us, with His people.
He's the same. He's still that Torah observant Jew trying to live out that Torah through you, as you through Him become an Israelite. That's a blessing. That's a blessing.
And where you fail to live up, to measure up, that wheat, that leavened wheat will be purified as we put away the old leavening, as we cast out the old leaven.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. Every commandment Yahweh gave has one thing in mind, and that is He wants us to love. He wants us to love Him. He wants us to love our fellow man. That's what it's all about.
We are proclaiming the Messiah and the giving of His Spirit as we observe Passover, as we observe Shavuot. We are proclaiming Messiah, the Baptisms, and all the things that occurred around Shavuot' that brought Yahushua to us.
How Yahweh worked in spite of us, and how HE in spite of our condition is able to return to us and be reconciled to us.
And these other Feasts, the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonements as we Tabernacle with Him. So in light of these things we need to proclaim these Feasts as a blessing from Yahweh our Elohim.
Christianity has invented some festivals of not so good backgrounds, of idolatry. Things that were inspired by Yahweh's enemy and tried to mix Yahweh in with them somehow. But Yahweh is Holy. We can't treat Him that way. We can't mix Him with unholiness.
He's a Holy Elohim. He's a jealous Elohim and we need to keep Him pure. Keep our observances pure, our worship pure. We can't be adopting pagan things into Him and try to make them fit into Messiah and somehow observe those.
All the while there's these other Festivals over here that so beautifully picture what He's done for us. Something doesn't seem right about that. That we reject Yahweh's beautiful Festivals and come up with things that Satan invented and keep those instead and try to fit Him into that.
But you can't mix light with darkness. Yahweh doesn't want the mixing of cups. We need to choose one cup or the other. You don't mix them together and try to make Him something He's not.
Let's take Yahweh's Festivals which already pictured the Messiah thousands of years ago, even before He was brought on the earth and did His awesome work and sent His Holy Spirit to us. Let's return to these Festivals. These beautiful Feast Days.
When Yahweh gives His Spirit: there are some He will give His Spirit to and there are some He will give His Spirit to and He will take it away. Because not everyone is going to endure to the end. Not everyone is going to endure.
Yahushua told us in Matthew 10:22...
Matthew 10:22 - "And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
We have to endure to the end. We have to remain steadfast. You know that beautiful thing is these Feasts cause us to come together so that we can draw strength from each other. So we can draw strength from the Holy scriptures teaching us these things.
The days are going to come where there are some that we thought were wheat, but maybe they won't be. There will only be SOME who endure to the end. We need to be ready for this. I think we're really close.
There's a great deception coming and we're going to have to be on our spiritual knees and spiritual toes. We have to be on our spiritual toes. Let's get on our toes and make sure we're living right and flying straight.
We are not going to have time to sit around and play games. This is a time for Yahweh's people to work. To work together.
We're in a very unique time period in history. Shavuot' always reminds me of these men who were stumbling and bumbling, arguing about who the greatest is and denying the Messiah.
But when Yahweh gave His Spirit and they prayed for boldness they were CHANGED men. Shavuot' came and they were changed men. Yahweh wants to change us. We're stumbling and bumbling ourselves. We need to change and we need to go forth. We need to go therefore.
Matthew 28:19 - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Go therefore and make disciples like they were doing. Why? I believe this with all my heart. In Luke 10:2...
Luke 10:2 - Then He said to them, "The harvest truly [is] great, but the laborers [are] few; therefore pray the Master of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
We are His harvest. It's not our harvest. It's Yahweh's harvest. It's not OUR ministry or ministries. It's the ministry of the Word of Yahweh that needs to go forth and be blessed.
So along this line I'm looking forward to sharing something I believe Yahweh revealed to me this year. It's probably one of the top three things I have ever learned as a believer since I gave my life to Yahweh 21 years ago.
I cannot wait to share it. It is on the tip of my tongue and I have allot to share. It has inspired me like I've never been inspired. It's inspired my family like we've never been inspired.
It's not me and my anything, it's Yahweh's Word that just got revealed and it was by Yahweh's grace that He revealed it to me. I'm very much looking forward to sharing this with you all.
So look for in the coming weeks a study on the things dealing with this. I don't want to give it away yet but it's about the Kingdom and it's about our purpose.
Yahweh wants us during Shavuot' (I believe) to encourage us to consider the responsibility we have, like the apostles were doing, to share our faith so that the Word of Yahweh is magnified. We're not hiding our talent in the sand. We're participating in Yahweh's ministry.
I hate how all these different ministries are divided up into little compartments and they never work together, there all separated from each other. We are all the body of Messiah. Yes, there are differences between us but there's so much more we can do together.
Some of us are the arms. Some of us are the body, but we're all connected. We're ALL connected, because we're all connected to the head.
Even if we're not the arms we got to be doing something. We got to be redeeming the time. We've got to be doing something useful for His work. We've got to be about our Father's business.
If we're just focusing on our own work, on our own pleasures, our own desires, ignoring the work that Yahweh has called every believer in Him to do. We're hiding our talent in the sand.
He didn't like that. He called that servant wicked and lazy. We can't hide our talent in the sand because the harvest is great.
It's time for us, during this time that we are here; I've never seen, I don't know if there's ever been, ever in the history of the world, ever, (maybe at Sinai) a time when worldwide there are people who are returning to the Torah and believing in the Messiah.
It's awesome. We need to ride this wave I think. We need to ride this thing because Yahweh is pouring out His Spirit.
That's the only way any of this could happen is that He is pouring out His Spirit upon His people to open up the blind eyes, to heal up the broken hearted, to release from prison those who are bound in their prison houses.
I want to be a part of this. I want every one of us to be a part of this. Let's seek to be that harvest ourselves and seek to gather others together to be part of the harvest. Because Yahweh wants to pour out His Spirit of Truth on so many more.
We just have to be the willing vessels to pour out to others as He pouts out unto us, and seek to be (Yahweh help us) living examples of Yahushua every day. To everyone we come in contact with.
I fail that everyday, but we all can grow together. I can grow. You can grow. We just have to be willing. Psalm 119:126, this is just one of my favorite scriptures, it really inspires me, and it has many times
Psalms 119:126 - [It is] time for [You] to act, O YAHWEH, [For] they have regarded Your law as void.
I think Yahweh is hearing that prayer today. Yahweh it's time for You to act because they've regarded Your Law as void.
May Yahweh continue to do His work in us. It's time for us to find and to walk in the way of truth. It's time for us to restore what man and Yahweh's enemy have made void.
It's high time that Yahweh's Torah, *YAHWEH'S TORAH*, be lifted up and proclaimed as the standard for all men to live by.
Without pretense. Without fear of man. Without excuse.
We're not yet a finished work. We're not yet perfected. But we are His workmanship. I trust that He who began a good work in each one of you and in me will continue to perfect us until the Day of Yahushua Ha Mashiakh.
Meanwhile, may Yahweh bless you, and may Yahweh, may Yahweh have mercy on each and every one of us.
HALLELUYAH!