The Holy Spirit – for Jew and Gentile
4 June 2022
In the coming days, the Jewish people will celebrate Shavuot, and Christians will celebrate Pentecost.
This is a good time to remember that Christianity owes its existence to Judaism. The church cannot exist without Israel.
To be a Gentile Christian is to be a “fellow citizen with God’s people” (Ephesians 2:19), a wild branch grafted into the olive tree of God of which the Jewish people are the natural branches (Romans 11).
As the word “Pentecost” suggests (Pentecost is Greek for “fiftieth”), the Jewish festival of Shavuot is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. Shavuot is also known as the "Feast of Weeks" and the "Feast of 50 days" in rabbinic tradition.
In the time of the Temple, it was the Festival during which the wheat harvest started and the first fruits of that harvest were taken to the Temple. The reception of the Torah (Law) by Moses on the mountain after the Exodus from Egypt was commemorated too. In short, a Jewish Festival, in their capital Jerusalem, with hundreds of thousands of Jews surrounding the Jewish Temple.
It was on that day of Shavuot = Pentecost that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles and other disciples of Jesus in Jerusalem, as they were celebrating the Jewish Festival of Weeks, as recorded in Acts 2.
That first “Day of Pentecost” was a purely Jewish affair. The Holy Spirit descended on the Jews who were gathered in Jerusalem. As far as we know, there was not a Gentile in sight.
The Spirit of G-d was poured out on the people Israel, and will be poured out on the people of Israel again when they are regathered in the land, as promised in Zechariah 12.
The restoration of the Jewish people to the land is sure proof that God is faithful to His declared purposes and promises. He will never abandon His people, whom He foreknew and whom He loves with an everlasting love.
We, Gentiles, may “rejoice with His people” (Deuteronomy 32:43 and Romans 15:10).
In the coming days, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Editorial Team - Israel & Christians Today
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Pentecost for Israel and for Us
Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer writes: “On the day of Pentecost during the Festival of Shavuot, the Jewish Festival of Weeks that is celebrated seven weeks after Pesach, the Apostle Peter delivers an important message. It is during one of the Jewish Temple Feasts for which Jews (and Gentiles converted to Judaism, also called Proselytes) came massively from the entire Roman world to the Temple in Jerusalem.”
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The Fulfilment of the Day of Pentecost and the Gift of the Holy Spirit
Kees de Vreugd writes: “The outpouring of the Holy Spirit did not occur just somehow or somewhere. The Spirit came “like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”. This house was in Jerusalem. And it happened “when the day of Pentecost was fulfilled”, as it literally reads. This is one of the days for which Jews from all corners of the earth go up to Jerusalem.”
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Anglican Church Repents for its Role in Expulsion of Jews
Dr. James Patrick writes: “On Sunday 8 May 2022, bishops of the Anglican and Catholic churches gathered in Oxford’s Christ Church Cathedral to ‘acknowledge with shame and penitence’ the antisemitism of the Synod of Oxford, 800 years ago.”
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Through Israel’s fall – in Acts | Romans 9-11 with Johannes Gerloff #48
Faith is not a feeling, but a conscious decision - sometimes against all odds. And faith always has implications for one's day-to-day life. Abram demonstrates this in a practical way.
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SCRIPTURE FOR THE WEEK:
Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you.And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
~ Deuteronomy 16:9-12
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.
~ Zechariah 12:10-14
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.”
Again, it says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.”
And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
~ Romans 15:7-13
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Israel & Christians Today
The goal of Israel & Christians Today is to help Christians to take God’s Word seriously, and study current events in the world in the context of the Bible.
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