Tilling and Planting

Tag: Holy Spirit

  • The Pentecost Harvest

    The Pentecost Harvest

    Intro

    Easter is now over. And with that the next major Christian holiday is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost Sunday occurs 7 weeks after Easter. And while I probably don’t have to tell you what occurred on that day in Christian history (though if you are new to the faith I will be sure to explain it for you), I’m willing to bet you aren’t fully aware of the Old Testament origins of Pentecost as a Jewish harvest festival. And if you want to be technical, part of what we as Christians recognize as happening on Pentecost is a harvest of sorts. Just not in the agricultural sense.

    Shavuot

    You might be thinking, “What did I just read?”, “What is Shavuot?”. Shavuot is the Hebrew word for the festival that occurs on the day we call “Pentecost”. It is Biblically called the Feast of Weeks. In terms of timing, the Israelites celebrated Passover, counted 49 days – or 7 weeks, hence the name – and then on the 50th day, celebrated this feast (see Leviticus 23:15-16 and Deuteronomy 16:9-10). Because it occurs on the 50th day after Passover, it also got the Greek name, Pentecost (which means “fiftieth”) – as we see in Acts 2:1.

    Shavuot is an agricultural festival related to the first fruits of the wheat harvest happening at this time of year. Consequently, part of the offerings brought to God included two loaves of bread baked with the first fruits of the harvest. In addition, they offered a bull, rams, lambs, a goat for a sin offering and more lambs for a peace offering (Leviticus 23:17-19). It was also one of the festivals that required mass pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So the city would be packed year after year on this day.

    As tends to happen, Shavuot also became associated with something else important from Jewish history. The giving of the law. Some Jewish traditions hold that 50 days after the first Passover in Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Mt. Sinai. And in fact, the Bible does say “in the third month” after leaving Egypt they arrived at Mt. Sinai. And 50 days after Passover – middle of the first month – would have been “in the third month” (third month of the Jewish year, not third month after leaving Egypt, just to be clear). Whether that’s true or not, Pentecost became a holiday not only for the wheat harvest, but also to remember the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai.

    Bonus: The Jubilee Year Connection

    One quick note, is that Pentecost and the Jewish year of Jubilee both had the number 50 attached to them. Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after Passover and every 50th year was the year of Jubilee. During this year, debts were cancelled, enslaved Israelites were set free, and the land was not worked. No sowing, plowing, reaping, etc. Consequently, the number 50 itself had connotations with freedom and rest.

    And as you’ll see later, all these things I mention here become reflected on the day God poured out Holy Spirit on the disciples.

    Pentecost of Fire

    Jumping ahead to the New Testament, 50 days after the Passover at which Jesus was crucified, all the disciples (120 in all) were in an upper room praying. And they were expectant. How do I know they were expectant? Take a look at what Jesus said before He ascended.

    On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

    Acts 1:4-5 (NIV – italics added)

    At this time, it was probably around 9 days since Jesus said these words to them. Perhaps less. So they were all eagerly awaiting this promised gift of Holy Spirit to be poured out upon them. They were probably planning on taking advantage of all the pilgrims who were in Jerusalem for Pentecost and witnessing – seems logical. Then God did something amazing. Take a look at what Luke writes in Acts 2.

    When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

    Acts 2:1-4 (NIV)

    The very thing they’d been waiting for that Jesus told them would come finally came! Filled with Holy Spirit they preached (in all the languages represented by all the pilgrims) to all who would listen and 3,000 people got saved that day.

    This is the Pentecost that Christians remember and celebrate. But what’s interesting are all the little connections between Pentecost the harvest festival and Pentecost the day Holy Spirit was poured out.

    From Wheat to Fire

    Why did God choose Pentecost to pour out Holy Spirit? Well, here’s a few ideas that show how the Christian Pentecost fulfills the Old Testament Shavuot.

    The Waiting Period

    In the Feast of Weeks, there’s this period of anticipation, a waiting between Passover and this feast. This symbolized the period from the Exodus from Egypt to the entering of Canaan when they could offer God the first fruits of their land. Similarly, in the NT the disciples had to wait for the promise of Holy Spirit to come upon them before they went out to fulfill the Great Commission.

    The First Fruits

    The Jews offered God the first fruits of their wheat harvest on the day of Pentecost. They witnessed to the fact that all of it belongs to God. And in a twist, the NT Pentecost is about God giving the church the first fruits of Holy Spirit (see Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:13-14) rather than us bringing anything to Him. In His love, God bears witness to us that we belong to Him.

    Fire and Speech

    At Sinai, God spoke to the Israelites “out of the fire” (Deuteronomy 4:12) that His presence created on the mountain. The Bible describes thunder, lightning, a thick cloud of smoke, and blazing fire. What a sight! And then to hear the voice of God come out of that…no wonder the Israelites trembled.

    In the NT, Holy Spirit descended and separated as “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3) and rested upon each on of them. And at that time they became empowered to speak in tongues. Do you see the similarities? The presence of God made manifest as fire and supernatural, divine, speech coming forth as a result. The biggest difference is that at Sinai God spoke directly from the fire whereas in the upper room, God spoke through the disciples. That’s next level!

    Covenants

    This one is pretty quick and simple. The Jewish people associated Pentecost with the giving of the law, the covenant, at Mt. Sinai. Similarly the outpouring of Holy Spirit marked the beginning of the New Covenant.

    The Jubilee Connection

    I’m back to the Year of Jubilee. I told you that everything I referenced would come back. Jubilee represented freedom from bondage, rest from labor, and the gift of the Holy Land. When Jesus poured out Holy Spirit, that brought with it freedom from Spiritual bondage, rest in Jesus, and the gift of the Kingdom of God. Pretty remarkable, don’t you think?

    The Harvest

    The last, but not least, connection I want to point out is the Harvest. I’ve said it multiple times that the Feast of Weeks is a feast of harvest. And on this day of Pentecost when God poured out Holy Spirit, a harvest of souls happened. 3,000 to be exact. And you know what? That number 3,000 has an Old Testament connection also. When Moses came down from the mountain carrying the Ten Commandments the first time, he found a lot of the people worshipping a golden calf. Look at what happened as a result of that.

    Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

    Exodus 32:27-28 (NIV)

    Did you catch the number? 3,000 Israelites died because they worshipped the golden calf. How many Jewish people received Jesus on the day of Pentecost? 3,000. Talk about redemption. These numbers aren’t by accident. 3,000 rejected God and perished at Mt. Sinai but God made sure there was 3,000 who were ready to receive Him on the day Holy Spirit was poured out. What a God we serve!

    Wrapping Up

    I said this in my post about Passover and I’ll say it again. God knew what He was doing when He instituted the Feast of Weeks. He knew the Israelites would connect it with the giving of the law and He deliberately set it up with 50 days to create the connection to the Year of Jubilee. God doesn’t do these things by accident. He plans them out.

    I think our takeaway from this is that any seed that God sows in you and through you will bear a harvest. Maybe not right away, but it will come. Just keep waiting and being patient.

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!

  • Fruit of the Spirit

    Fruit of the Spirit

    Intro

    “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.” I think we’ve all heard this before. It’s an often quoted passage from Galatians that children are taught. Sometimes I think we teach children this verse because we want them to behave that way. But that’s just a theory.

    But given that, what do these all mean? Sometimes I think we go through this list without fully grasping what each one means. Especially since the original Greek may or may not mean what we think it means. Dive in with me to see what Paul is really telling us about the Christian lifestyle here.

    My Experience

    I’ll be honest here. I haven’t always been good about giving a personal connection with each of the topics I’ve written about. And that’s a bit unfortunate. Because frankly, the best blogs and messages are the ones where the writer or speaker has a personal connection to it. Some reason or motivation that gives them a reason to truly love the topic and be passionate about it. Many of the topics I’ve written about have all been fantastic topics that I enjoy and recognize as foundational. But to put a personal touch on each, I just couldn’t do. I mentioned a few times during my series on Baptismal Regeneration that I’ve had personal encounters with people who believe that way. That made me more invested in those than in some of the others. I genuinely wonder how many of you picked up on the different tone because of that.

    But all that to say is that for this topic – the Fruit of the Spirit – I have a more interesting story and connection to it. And before jumping into talking about the Fruit, I’m going to share it.

    The French Chef

    Many years ago in high school, I volunteered at a local church’s Awana program as a junior leader for the Sparks age group – Kindergarten through 2nd grade. One semester, the topic for the kids teaching was the Fruit of the Spirit. And to help them learn it, the Sparks director – Mrs. Pat – found a fun skit to help the kids learn and remember. And she asked me to play as the titular character, a French Chef named Chef Tellzeetruth (gotta love these children’s skits, lol). As this chef, each week I would come in and talk with Mrs. Pat about a different aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit and would use a different real life fruit to symbolize the Spiritual side.

    Now, I do not remember any of the fruits used or anything I talked about specifically, but I do remember that during this time I personally grew in the very characteristics I talked about during those Wednesday evenings. Amazing how that works. Sometimes to see the growth that you desire, you must step out and teach another. I mentioned in my introductory post that I was known for my Biblical knowledge and would get asked questions periodically. And if I didn’t have the answers, I would find them. That research and searching helped me learn as well. And that’s what I’ve found with my blogs also. So, a little encouragement here is to step out and help others learn. Share your knowledge and search for ways to learn more. Volunteer like I did. Teaching kids is a great way to learn more yourself! The questions they ask, lol.

    Now that I’ve said all that, let’s dive into today’s topic. I first want to cover the context in which Paul wrote this passage before going into the individual fruits.

    The Context

    Here’s the passage from Galatians as we know it and tend to teach it.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

    The immediate context of this verse is Paul contrasting a life lived by the Spirit vs one lived by the flesh. The preceding verses have this to say.

    The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21(NIV)

    Having these two different lists to contrast is important. After all, many of the godly characteristics listed here could technically be seen in some form in non-believers. However, it’s probably not a lifestyle – and it certainly has no eternal value. So sometimes you need to look for additional fruits (good or bad) to discern if someone is living by the Spirit or gratifying the desires of the flesh.

    Paul’s whole deal here is arguing against the need for circumcision and obeying the law in order to follow Jesus and be saved. And he warns that anyone who practices any of these sinful lifestyles should not be fooled into thinking they are in Christ simply because of circumcision. And it’s only through the power of Holy Spirit that anyone can overcome these lifestyles and life the Christian lifestyle – as characterized by the Fruit of the Spirit.

    One thing I wish to mention as an aside. If you are a Christian who struggles with a sin and are actively fighting it and trusting in God to help you overcome, you do not fall into Paul’s warning. Paul’s warning only applies to those who are not even trying and feel no reason to stop. These people are most likely not even saved – no matter what prayer they may have prayed or the fact that they were baptized at some point in their life.

    The Fruit

    Moving on to break down each characteristic of the Fruit of the Spirit. Notice I said “characteristic”. Also notice that the Bible uses “fruit” singular. It’s actually one giant fruit that manifests itself in 9 distinct ways. Cool right? And to keep it in front of us, here’s the passage again.

    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

    You’ll notice that rather than “patience” the NIV uses the word “forbearance”. I will be discussing that in the section on patience. Now let’s go through each one to see what Paul meant and the expectations for us.

    Love

    We all probably think we know what love is. But did you know that the Greek had at least 8 different words for love? It’s true. And only a few show up in the New Testament. The two that most Christians are familiar with are philia – love between friends – and agape – unconditional love. Guess which one appears here in Galatians? If you guessed agape, congrats! (If you guessed eros…you might need to do some more study.) Evidence of Holy Spirit working in the lives of a Christian is that Christian having a godly, unconditional love towards people. No strings attached. We love others because God loves them.

    Joy

    When the New Testament talks about joy, it isn’t talking about a happiness dependent on our circumstances. Here in Galatians the word is chara. This word translates as joy or delight and is often accompanied with gladness. Regardless of circumstances. After all, God redeemed us and gives us grace, mercy, and His overwhelming love. Who cares what the world and the devil throw at us? We have the King of kings as our Father! “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” Philippians 4:4 (NIV).

    Peace

    Biblical peace (eirene in the Greek) includes wholeness and harmony with God and other people. It includes a life free of conflict. Now that doesn’t mean that everything will be perfect and tranquil. But if you have true Biblical peace, then regardless of the circumstances, you will choose to not be at conflict. Someone might be angry with you and not want anything to do with you. But you choose to forgive and let it go and not stew about it. You are not in conflict with that person. As far as you are concerned, you are at peace with them. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV).

    Patience

    The NIV translates the Greek word here (makrothumia) as forbearance. Because of the lack of familiarity, other translations will use patience or long-suffering – which is a bit easier to understand. Other words that fit here to help us understand the meaning would be endurance, steadfastness, and perseverance. The root of the Greek word relates to two other words meaning “long” and “passion”. The picture we get with this word is to become “long-tempered” through the circumstances and temptations we go through (as opposed to short-tempered). Holy Spirit empowers us to “forbear” through all circumstances and not give in to temptation to sin or to lie down and give up when the going gets tough.

    Kindness

    I think most us has a pretty good idea what it means to show kindness. Some words that go along with being kind are friendly, generous, and considerate towards others. Putting their needs before your own. The Greek word here – chrestotes – conveys moral goodness, integrity, usefulness, and benignity (not harmful, gentle). The Bible says that it’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance. Not yelling at people that they’re going to Hell because of X, Y, and Z. Let’s save judgment for God and just show people kindness and respect. Okay?

    Goodness

    Goodness (agathosune) means uprightness of heart and life, goodness, and kindness. And when I say goodness there, I mean in action. It’s more than just saying good things, it’s living it out in our personal lives and our public ones.

    Gentleness

    I think this is another one we know pretty well. It conveys humility and compassion towards others. The Greek word, prautes, was translated in the KJV as “meekness” (interestingly, the KJV then had “kindness” as “gentleness”). However, “meekness” became associated with “weakness” and later translators opted for “gentleness” to convey the same thing. But meekness is not weak. When applied to wild animals, the Greek word actually means “tame”. In other words, the wild animal has not lost any strength. But it knows how to control it and when to use that strength. Jesus is the perfect example of meekness. The God who created the universe became a man. With a word He could have destroyed everything, but He didn’t. That’s meekness. That’s gentleness. And we must be like that. Humble, knowing our strength, but not lording it over people.

    Faithfulness

    We all know someone who is faithful. They show up week after week to serve or to help out. Anytime you call them for anything, they answer and they will help you to the best of their abilities. Biblical faithfulness is loyalty, reliability, trustworthy, etc. The Greek word pistis encompasses all these with a dependability on God. Because without Him, we can’t do anything.

    Self-Control

    The last characteristic of the Fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul is Self-Control. The Greek word here is egkrateia. It means the ability to control one’s own body, its appetites and desires – physically and mentally. In the context of the early church in Galatia, it would have been related especially to sobriety and chastity. Today it would relate to these and so much more. I mean, do we really need to be picking up our phone every time there’s a lull in a conversation?

    If you feel overwhelmed by any one of these, just remember that this is only possible with God’s help. Apart from Him, we can’t do anything (see John 15:5). Frankly I’m glad I have Holy Spirit helping me. Because I’d fail at so many of these on my own. Praise the Lord for what He has done in my life!

    Wrapping Up

    I hope from this brief study of the Fruit of the Spirit, you feel that you have a greater understanding of what God desires for your life as well as an encouragement that you aren’t expected to accomplish this alone. Only with Holy Spirit’s help can you live this life. That’s why Paul calls it the “Fruit of the Spirit” and not “Fruit of the Christian”. God bless you all!

    Outro

    If you enjoyed this post, please consider doing one or all of these things. First, subscribe if you haven’t. If you have, thank you! Second, spread the word. Send these to everyone you know and encourage them to read and subscribe. This blog is purely word of mouth right now. I rely on you, my readers, to help me get more readers. And third, please consider donating. It’ll enable me to continue to offer regular posts.

    Feel free to leave a comment with any questions about what I’ve written, any additional comments about the post, or if there’s a topic you’d like me to write about. Before doing that though, be sure to check out all my posts here and see if I’ve covered it already. And if you find I’ve done it already but aren’t satisfied or still have more questions, let me know!

    Thank you for reading this! I greatly appreciate each one of you. Until next time, God bless you all!