God's Calendar - The Feasts of Pentecost and Trumpets

We've been looking at Acts 2, which is the Holy Spirit's record of the Day of Pentecost. And we've discovered there are four activities of the Holy Spirit recorded there. The Spirit came, the Spirit baptized, the Spirit filled, and the Spirit spoke. We've already considered these first two activities: the Spirit came. He could not come sooner because Jesus first had to die and be raised from the dead. God has His calendar.

The first event on His calendar in Leviticus 23 is the death of Christ, Passover. Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, putting sin out of our lives. Then the Feast of Firstfruits, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only after our Lord had died, been raised from the dead, and ascended to glory could the Holy Spirit come. Now, having come, He remains with us forever, and He lives within us. When we pray for the Holy Spirit to come, we are not asking Him to come to Earth. We are asking Him to come into our lives in a new rush of power and blessing. And we're asking Him to revive us and to stir us.

The Spirit baptized. At the Feast of Pentecost, Leviticus 23, they brought forth two loaves of bread. And these loaves, of course, represent the church, Jews and Gentiles. The Holy Spirit baptized the Jews into the body of Christ, as recorded in Acts 2, and the Gentiles were baptized into the body of Christ, as recorded in Acts 10. That's when Peter went to the household of Cornelius. It's rather interesting to note that in Acts 11, when Peter gave the account of his experience with the Gentiles, he says this in verse 15, "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning." So that Pentecost was a beginning. A beginning of what? A beginning of the church. When the Holy Spirit of God baptized His people into the body of Christ.

Now, the third activity of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is found in Acts 2:4, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit came, the Holy Spirit baptized, and the Holy Spirit filled. The classic text on the fullness of the Spirit is Ephesians 5, beginning at verse 18. "And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit."

Never confuse the baptism of the Spirit with the filling of the Spirit. I've heard preachers say, "Oh, it makes no difference what you call it, as long as you have the experience." I don't believe that for one minute. If I go to my doctor, I want him to use the right terminology. If there's something wrong with my gallbladder, I don't want him talking about my lungs or my liver. Bible terminology is accurate, and we do not have the privilege or the right to change the words that God has written, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit happened once. The Holy Spirit of God came down and baptized the Jews into the body of Christ, then the Gentiles into the body of Christ. And when you were saved, once and for all, you were baptized into the body of Christ. There is no repetition of the baptism of the Spirit. There is a repetition of the fullness of the Spirit. In the Book of Acts, you read over and over again, "And they were filled with the Spirit," "And as they prayed, the house was shaken," "And they were filled with the Spirit." Over and over again, there is the fullness of the Spirit of God, but not the baptism of the Spirit. Secondly, I notice that nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to be baptized by the Spirit of God. But we are commanded to be filled. The fullness of the Holy Spirit requires our cooperation. The baptism of the Spirit occurs when you trust Christ as your Savior, once and for all.

So, the baptism of the Spirit is a single experience, the fullness is a repeated experience. We are commanded to be filled, we are not commanded to be baptized. And the baptism of the Spirit is a collective experience. It puts me into the body of Christ. The fullness of the Spirit is a personal individual experience, empowering me for witness and for Christian living.

Why were the apostles and the other believers filled with the Holy Spirit? That they might witness. Acts 1:8 makes that very clear. The task of the church is witnessing. Now, some people have a very special gift of soul winning. They are able to lead people to Christ easily. They have a gift, some people don't. But everyone can witness. If we are filled with the Spirit of God, we can bear witness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here are some evidences of the fullness of the Spirit: Instead of going around complaining, we will be joyful and and singing. We'll be thankful, and we'll be submitting to one another. We'll be building bridges instead of building walls. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you find it easy to remember Scripture, 'cause the Holy Spirit of God reminds you. When you're filled with the Spirit, you you have a desire to witness. And the witness comes from God. It's not something you manufacture. We must want to be filled for the glory of God, not for some experience, not for some private enjoyment, but for power to share Christ with others, to be witnesses for Him.

Now, the fourth activity of the Holy Spirit is also in Acts 2:4, "The Holy Spirit spoke." They all were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, the men were not controlling the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was controlling these men. When you're baptized by the Holy Spirit, you belong to Christ's body. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, Christ has your body in His control. Your body belongs to Him. And then He can speak through you.

Now, this whole matter of tongues has created so many problems for people. If you'll read Acts 2 very carefully, you'll discover, first of all, that they were praising God in these tongues. They were not preaching. Verse 11 says that they the people there at Pentecost heard them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. So the the tongues were for the purpose of praising God. Secondly, when they preached, verse 14, when Peter got up to preach, he preached in the Hebrew language. He didn't preach in tongues. So keep in mind that the the tongues at Pentecost were for the purpose of praising God and bearing witness of what He had done.

Something else is true: these tongues were known languages. There are a number of different places, 16 different geographical places are mentioned here in Acts 2:7-11. And verse 6 says, "They were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language." This was not some heavenly language. This was not some brand new thing. This was the Holy Spirit of God using the tongues of people to praise God in different languages that were already known.

Now, we must make it very clear, we must make it as clear as we can, that the gift of tongues is not an evidence of either the baptism of the Spirit or the fullness of the Spirit. Nowhere do we find this in Scripture. When I was converted, I was baptized instantly by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. I did not speak in tongue, but I want you to know I was soundly converted. The Spirit of God came into my life and bore witness to me that I was a child of God. The baptism of the Spirit is not evidenced by tongues, nor is the fullness of the Spirit.

There are multitudes of saints of God who have been filled with the Holy Spirit in great power and they've never spoken in tongues. Tongues are not an evidence of maturity. The church at Corinth had a great deal of tongues going on, and they were very immature and very carnal. They were a carnal, worldly church. So don't let anyone confuse you. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 how this gift of tongues was supposed to be used. Some people have asked me, "Do you think God could give a gift of tongues today?" I think God is sovereign and God can do whatever He wants to do. There are those who believe that this gift was removed and cannot come back. I sympathize with their position, but I don't necessarily defend it. I do not believe that every believer has to speak in tongues. I do believe that God can, if He wants to, give a gift of tongues. But we must not make this a test of anything.

The important thing is that you and I are filled with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God has come. That's a settled matter. The Spirit of God has baptized believers into the church. That's a settled matter. The Spirit of God can fill us, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day. And the Spirit of God can speak through us in languages people understand, and we can bear witness to Jesus Christ. Has your tongue been set on fire from Heaven? It's not important that you have some great ecstatic experience. It is important that the Holy Spirit of God uses us to bear witness to Jesus Christ, to tell the whole world that people can be saved if they'll only trust in Him.

Now, the next event on God's calendar is the Feast of Trumpets. And this is described in Leviticus 23, beginning in verse 24. "Speak unto the children of Israel saying, 'In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, and holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein, but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.'" The last three feasts occur in the seventh month. As you know, the nation of Israel was all wrapped up in sevens. The seventh day of the week was the Sabbath. There are seven feasts of Jehovah. Seven weeks after Firstfruits is Pentecost. Seven years introduces the sabbatical year. Seven times seven, 49 years, introduces the Year of Jubilee. Then in Daniel 9, you have seven times 70, 490 years, describing much of the prophetic history of Israel. So the nation of Israel is wrapped up in sevens, and in the seventh month, there were three very important feasts. The Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the month, the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the month, and then the Feast of Tabernacles on the 15th day through the 21st day. And this concluded the calendar.

Now, the four feasts that we have already discussed deal with what God has already done for the salvation of lost souls. The next three feasts are in the future. Their their application is basically to the nation of Israel. But there is still a spiritual and prophetic meaning for those of us who belong to the church. The Feast of Trumpets speaks of the time when our Lord Jesus shall return and take us to be with Him. The Day of Atonement, I think, reminds me of that time when I'm going to stand before the Lord, and He's going to take care of all of the affairs of my life, that judgment seat of Christ. There's going to be a time of of cleansing and a time of rewarding. And the Feast of Tabernacles speaks of the wonderful, joyful time we're going to have sharing in the blessings of the Kingdom with our Savior.

Now, for the nation of Israel, these three feasts have a very definite application. You see, Israel has a threefold problem. Israel is a scattered people. Israel is a sinful people. Israel is a suffering people. Israel is a scattered people because Israel did not obey God. We are told in Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 about the scattering of the people of Israel. But at the Feast of Trumpets, it was a time of gathering. God shall call His scattered people together. Israel's a sinful people. Now, all of us are sinners. No one is more a sinner than another. But, oh, Israel said, "His blood be upon us and upon our children." And yet the Day of Atonement speaks of that time when Israel shall be cleansed and shall experience wonderful salvation. So the scattered people shall be called, and the sinful people shall be cleansed, and the suffering people shall be comforted. The Feast of Tabernacles speaks of that time when God shall give His people the promises that He made in the Old Testament prophecies, that beautiful, wonderful kingdom that is theirs to enjoy.

Now, we're going to look together at the Feast of Trumpets and talk about Israel, God's scattered people. In Numbers 10, you'll find an explanation of this matter of trumpets. They used the trumpets for very important purposes in the nation of Israel. In the first eight verses of Numbers 10, we discover that the trumpets were used for calling the assembly. "Make thee two trumpets of silver, of a whole piece shalt thou make them, that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly and for the journeying of the camps." In verse 5, the trumpets were used to blow an alarm. In Numbers 10:9, the trumpets were used to announce war. And in verse 10, the trumpets were used to announce the special days in the calendar of Israel, the solemn feasts and the sacrifices and so forth. The trumpets were God's method of communication. They were God's telephone, God's radio, God's television, God's newspaper. When God wanted to announce something to His people and get His people to do something, then He used the blowing of the trumpets.

Now, Israel is a scattered people. Israel should be dwelling in her land and enjoying all the blessings of the land. There are people who have returned to the nation, as we know. We see the people returning to the land, but Israel is still a scattered people. Now they are scattered because they disobeyed God.

Let me make it very clear that all men have disobeyed God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one nation is purer than any other nation. But Israel had so many privileges. God gave to Israel the patriarchs and the prophets, and the prophecies, and the covenants, and the temple, and the priesthood, and the sacrifices, and the great promise of the Messiah. And yet Israel did not live up to her privileges, and now she's been scattered.

First, God punished Israel in the land. In the Book of Judges, you'll find seven nations that came in to spank disobedient Israel. And when the nation continued to disobey, God took them out of the land and spanked them, took them off into Babylonian captivity. Then He permitted them to return, and when they sinned once again and continued to resist Him, He scattered them from off of the land. Israel is a scattered people, but the Feast of Trumpets says to us that one day God is going to gather His people back to the land, and God is going to bring them into salvation.

Let me read you from Isaiah 27:12-13. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel." It's sort of a repetition of the Exodus. "And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem." In Matthew 24, in this great prophetic sermon that our Lord gave, we read these words, verse 29, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of the Heaven shall be shaken. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, and from one end of Heaven to the other." So Israel is going to be regathered, and there is going to be a time of cleansing and restoration and restitution. And we look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, as far as the church is concerned, those of us who belong to our Lord Jesus through faith in Him, what about us? Well, there's going to be the sounding of the trumpet for us as well. The church is also a scattered people. Some of God's people are on Earth, scattered from one place to another. Some are up in Heaven, they have died and their souls have gone to be with the Lord. The church is a scattered people. We have missionaries all over the Earth. We have believers all over the Earth. Every tribe and nation will one day bow before the Lord Jesus. Christ is going to assemble His people. 1 Thessalonians 4.

Let me make it very clear, the Feast of Trumpets in its basic interpretation belongs to Israel. But in its personal application, there's a message for us as Christians. We're told in verse 15 of 1 Thessalonians 4, "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them who are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

In 1 Corinthians 15:52, we're told about the last trump. When the trumpet sounds from Heaven, God's going to gather His people together. God's going to move them upward, take them to glory. And it's also going to be the sounding of an alarm. In 1 Thessalonians 5:3, "For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety,' then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape." When God calls His church home from this world, He's going to declare war on this world, and then is going to come such tribulation as people have never, ever seen.

And so we're waiting for the sound of the trumpet, aren't we? As we labor in the harvest, the thing that keeps us going is Jesus is coming again. And as we wait, and as we witness, and as we work, we know that He is going to come, for His promise is faithful. And so I say to you today, lift up your eyes, for your redemption is drawing nigh. Jesus is coming again. Let's be faithful to serve Him today.