PROGRESSION

From Passover, To Pentecost,

To Tabernacles

 "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts."  2 Peter 1:19

The second major feast in the Hebrew religious calendar was the Feast of Weeks, or Harvest, or in New Testament terms, PENTECOST.  This occurred at a separate point in time from the Passover and was different and distinct from the previous feast.  For the second time, all males were to appear before the Lord in the place of His choosing.  (Deuteronomy 16:16)  This feast, like the first, was also associated with the harvest.  Whereas Passover was held at the time of barley harvest, Pentecost was held at the time of wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22)  Therefore, we see that the feasts were associated with a progression in harvest, and speak of the continuous process of sowing and reaping throughout the believer's walk with the Lord.  We do not receive the life of our Lord in full measure upon conversion, but we continually "put on the Lord Jesus Christ".  (Romans 13:14; Ephesians 4:24)  We are to be progressively changed into His image, until we arrive at a place of fulness, "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ".  (2 Corinthians 3:18; Ephesians 3:19; 4:13)

A detailed description of the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, is found in Leviticus 23:15-21.  Verses 15 and 16 reveal that the Israelites were to count carefully from the day that they brought the sheaf of the wave offering unto the completion of seven sabbaths (49 days).  Then, precisely on the day after the seventh sabbath (or 50th day), they were to observe the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.  Now, was this to be prophetic and significant in the age to come?  Was this also a prophetic indicator of something that would occur in the church and in the believer's experience?

In Acts 1:3, we find that after the resurrection, Jesus appeared periodically to His disciples for a period of 40 days.  Commanding them to stay in Jerusalem to wait for the Father's promise, He told them they would be baptized in the Holy Ghost "not many days hence".  (v. 4,5)  According to Acts 2:1, this time interval proved to be exactly 10 days, for when the day of Pentecost (or 50th day, since the word "pentecost" means "fiftieth") was fully come...they were all filled with the Holy Ghost..." (v.4)  The same disciples who had been apprehended three and one half years earlier, cleansed and instructed at the Master's feet, were now partakers of another experience.  The God of Israel was commemorating the Feast of Weeks in a fashion never before seen or imagined.  Exactly 50 days after Jesus' resurrection, these "unlearned and ignorant" men heard a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and became immersed in a dynamo of power.  The same Creator Who had breathed the breath of life into His first Adam, was now breathing life and power into another "man".  This was a corporate man which was to become the very body of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This small band of empowered witnesses spoke with great boldness, wrought signs and wonders, and gave potent testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

OF PENTECOST

At this point, we are forced to take issue with those schools of thought which equate conversion with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.  Although both could occur at the same time, or could immediately follow each other, nonetheless, they represent two different experiences.  This truth is clearly illustrated in two places in the New Testament.  The first is in Acts 8:12-17.  Many in the city of Samaria had believed the word preached by Philip and were baptized in water, but verse 16 clearly states, "For as yet he (the Holy Ghost) was fallen upon none of them."  But when the apostles, Peter and John, laid their hands on them, they received the Holy Ghost and joined the fast-growing number of believers who were privileged to participate in the "Pentecostal" experience.

 Likewise, when Paul came to Ephesus, he found certain disciples to whom he asked this question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?"  A reading of Acts 19:1-7 reveals that these believers had been baptized only in water and had not yet heard of the Holy Ghost.  But when Paul laid his hands upon them, they, too, had a "second" experience, for the Holy Ghost fell upon them and caused them to prophesy and to speak with tongues.

 Let us stop briefly to summarize.  We have now seen that the Old Testament Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), like the Passover, was prophetic in nature and has its corresponding New Testament fulfillment, both in the church historically and in the believer experientially.  The Feast of Passover and the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament were not synonymous, and neither are the corresponding experiences in the New Testament order synonymous.  Salvation is the beginning in the harvest of the Life of Christ, and the Pentecostal experience represents a further incoming of the Christ-life in the Person of the Holy Ghost.  Those who have experienced only Passover are exhorted to believe God for a genuine Pentecost in their lives.  Truly there is something more, and by the millions, to this very day, seeking people with hungry and open hearts have experienced that "sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty  wind!"

But now, let us prepare our hearts for a further challenge.  In many Pentecostal and Charismatic circles today, the baptism of the Holy Spirit represents the acme of experience, the top of the ladder.  The teaching among many Pentecostals tends to equate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the "fulness of God".  Throughout the world, we have many churches that call themselves, "Full Gospel", meaning that they teach and experience the baptism in the Spirit.  The implication made to the mind of the believer is that the Holy Spirit baptism is the ultimate in spiritual experience.  As a result, there has been a great settling around that particular experience and a reaping of much shallowness.  All over the world, one can find movements and churches, once made virile and vibrant by a Pentecostal outpouring, reduced to a state of stagnation and death.  Throughout church history, and especially in the last 100 years, God has graciously poured out of His Spirit, but time after time, denominational walls have gone up.  Men have used the Spirit for their own ends, rather than allowing Him to guide them into all truth.  He Who should have been given the liberty to bring to the church  a progressive revelation of Jesus Christ, has been restricted to the context of an initial experience, or, at best, been allowed of men to bring only a limited measure of life and blessing to the church.

 We observe that the Old Testament Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was often referred to as a FIRST-FRUITS feast.  In Exodus 23:16 it is referred to as "the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labours..."  Exodus 34:22 speaks of the "first-fruits of wheat harvest."  The two wave loaves of Leviticus 23:17 were to be the "first-fruits unto the Lord."  This allusion to first-fruits brings the understanding that a greater harvest will follow!  This second major feast coincided with wheat harvest, but the land had much more to yield.  Yet to follow was the harvesting of all fruits, and the wine and the oil.

 Likewise, in the New Testament fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks, the impartation of the Holy Spirit is referred to as the "earnest" of our inheritance. (See Ephesians 1:14;  2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5)  The term "earnest" means a pledge of more to come, or a deposit against a full portion to be given later.  Contrary to the belief of many, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is NOT the fulness of the life of God available to the believer, nor does it represent the climax of experience available to the church.  It is a means, rather than an end.  Its purpose is to bring to the church a continuous, deeper, and increasingly glorious revelation of Jesus Christ.  As teacher and guide, the Holy Spirit will bring us into all truth.  Even as the Holy Ghost overshadowed the virgin and caused the Son of God to be formed within her womb, so He overshadows the life of the believer and works toward the formation of the fulness of the Christ-life.  (Galatians 4:19)

 Summarizing our brief discussion here, but certainly not exhausting the truth set forth by the second major feast, we conclude as follows.  The Feast of Weeks, Harvest, or Pentecost was prophetic, as was the Passover, of something that was to be fulfilled both by Jesus and by the believer in the church age.  With respect to Jesus, He fulfilled the Passover by His death as the perfect sacrificial lamb, and He fulfilled the Feast of Weeks, or Harvest by releasing His life unto His disciples on the day of Pentecost in the person of the Holy Ghost.  (See John 7:39)  In John 14, verses 3, 18, 23, 28, each of the references to his "coming again" speaks about the Holy Spirit, or Comforter, who was to come.  Thus, the coming of the Holy Spirit was the coming of the resurrected, glorified Christ.  When the believer participates in the "Pentecostal" experience according to Acts 2, he also fulfills the second major Old Testament feast.  When the church historically has been blessed by Pentecostal-type outpourings or revivals, such have also been a fulfillment of the second major feast.

by Sergio Valori

"Feasts" Writings Continue on Ensuing Pages