21-05-26 - ‘Appointed Times: Shavuot’

Pausing the current Let’s Get Serious series for a special festival teaching, Reverend Tim Gutmann explores the biblical feast of Shavuot and its fulfilment in Acts 2 at Pentecost.

The message highlights the connection between Mount Sinai and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, showing how God’s appointed times reveal His redemptive plan through Scripture. Tim also reflects on Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi, drawing out themes of covenant faithfulness, redemption, and the unity of Jew and Gentile in Messiah.

Viewers are encouraged to seek the Holy Spirit afresh, walk in obedience to God’s calling, and embrace the spiritual significance of the biblical feasts.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

We are in tonight is sundown-ish Shavuat, and it's a very, very special time for the church. And this was a uh uh very significant, prophetically significant. It fell exactly on the Feast of Weeks, exactly on the first um Shavuat when when the Israelites remembered God given Torah to Moses, and of course, a lot of you know that Moses, when he came down, the people were indulging in revelry, and there were so much amazing parallels to how God redeems and turns around that which is lost and that which is sinful, and he and he restores, and that's who he is, he's a redeemer, restorer. And we'll look as well tonight, as well in the book of Ruth. That all took place around Shawawat, the barley and wheat harvest. Amazing, amazing events there, which also, like every page of the Bible, foretells and foreshadows Yeshua. Let's read together Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. It says, When the day of Pentecost came, they were in uh altogether in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house. And where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire to the appeared to them and rested on each and every one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Amazing, amazing events there on that first or or on the birth of the church, on that feast of Pentecost, fulfilled, just like Jesus had uh 50 days before fulfilled the feast of first fruits by rising from the dead, by fulfilling the feast of uh obviously Passover by dying on the cross for us. Incredible. They hear this sound of a mighty rushing wind and they saw fire. Do you know what that reminds me of? It takes it back to Sinai, the first Shabbat, when Moses received the law because they went to the mountain and the presence of God was like fire and wind on that mountain, except the people were scared, they were like, We can't go near God. If we go near God, we're gonna be destroyed. And in fact, God says, Don't come near, because this is holy place, and when your sin isn't dealt with, the holy presence of God, you will just burn up. You will just burn up. So it's similar, but except look at what happens when somebody is redeemed in Jesus. That very precious presence and fire of God came upon them and it filled them, and they began to speak in other tongues. And and I'm not personally, we are pastors who believe that God is still doing that today, still filling his church with his spirit, and he gives everybody different gifts. You know, some people might speak in tongues, but some people might prophecy or have the gift of faith or gift of healing or gift of uh there's all kinds of gifts. You can see that's another preach for another day. Uh uh, but God is still doing that, and I know that God still does that, and it wasn't just for the apostles because that exact same thing happened to Cornelius, it says he began to speak in other tongues, and the apostles were amazed. They said, Look, it's cut the Holy Spirit's come upon these Gentiles just the same as it did on us at the very start. So Pentecost truly was a special, amazing thing, and it really was, it really was the fulfillment, and it's found its fulfillment in Jesus. Remember John the Baptist, he's like, I baptize you with water, but he that is coming after me, and I just read that this morning actually, I'm not even worthy to tie his sandals because he's gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Incredible, incredible events, and so they begin to speak in other tongues, and and we see in Acts chapter 2, verses 8 to 11, it says, How is it we hear each of us in his native language? Parthians, Medis, Elamites, Mesopotomia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, Rome, Jews, proselytes, Cretans, and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongue the mighty works of God. And here's two things I want to say about that. Clearly, the apostles are speaking in these different languages, these earthly languages that these guys were hearing from across the world. But secondly, if you were to uh place all of those places just mentioned and make a map that is exactly the table of nations you see in Genesis chapter 10. And you know when the uh people, instead of being spread across the earth like God commanded Noah and commanded his sons, he said, now go and spread across the earth, increase and multiply. Instead of doing that, they disobeyed, they went to Shena to build the Tower of Babel. What happened at the Tower of Babel? The nations they rebelled against God, they turned against God. They said, We don't want, we don't want you, God, we'll do it our way, we'll get to heaven our way. In fact, we're gonna get to heaven, we're gonna kick you out. Man is God and all of this idolatry and wickedness. And in a sense, the nations were then disinherited by God. But this is God on the day of Pentecost, bringing the nations back to him, because what that very same region in the ancient world, God had brought Jews from those regions to Jerusalem, and again, this fulfills that promise that God gave to Abraham through your people, all the nations and the families. I read actually the families of the earth this morning in Genesis, the families of the earth will be blessed. All the families, and they were blessed by I like to picture these Jewish guys from all of these places that's mentioned, going back to where they came from, saying, Guess what? We've discovered Jesus is the Messiah, the Messiah's come, the promised one, and he's not just for us, he's for you guys too. And of course, we know the apostles, according to church, history, tradition, died all over the world to proclaim the gospel, being that light and that blessing they were called to be. And of course, it has its ultimate fulfillment in Yeshua, the lion of the tribe of the Jews, the root of David, and so incredible, incredible things. Let's go to Ruth right now. Uh Ruth chapter 2, verses 4. This is as uh again, this shavuwa event that happened. Incredible. It says, Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. Now we know how significant Bethlehem is in in the book of Judges. Bethlehem, where David is from, Bethlehem, of course, Yeshua. And he said to the reapers, Yahweh be with you, the Lord be with you. And they said, The Lord bless you. And of course, that foreshadows Boaz foreshadowing the Yeshua because Isaiah says in Manuel, God with us, God with us. And what do we see about Boaz? And um, what do we see in the book of Ruth? I'll tell you what we see. Naomi had two daughters-in-laws, uh, and one of them stuck by a roof. Ruth says, Your people will be my people, a picture of the church. Your people will be my people, your God will be my God. And Naomi said, Bless you, you've not you've shown so much kindness. And then she says about Boaz, oh the Lord blessed him. He hasn't stopped showing kindness to the living and to the dead. And then she says about uh uh the Lord here in Ruth chapter 2, verse 20, it says, Naomi said to a daughter, May he be blessed by Yahweh, whose kindness, Yahweh's kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. The man is a close relative, he is our redeemer. And this word kindness, uh your Bibles will often translate it kind, but actually, the Hebrew word is Hesed, it's even stronger, actually. It's like this covenant loyalty that goes above and beyond. It's constantly showing love and it's constantly showing love that costs, and that's a great picture of Jesus on the cross. This is a great uh event that happened long centuries before Jesus that points to Jesus and points to Shavawat because of what Jesus when he said, I'm gonna die, but when I die, it's like a seed because his Holy Spirit will come on his church, and that means we can we can worship God right here in spirit and in truth. The temple, if you like, is the body of Christ now. We don't have to go to Jerusalem to worship because actually God has come to us. Isn't that incredible? It's amazing, isn't that incredible? And uh, I just want to kind of like finish this by actually turning now because we've been blessed by the Jewish people. Now, what's what I love to share, you know, the Hebrew feast as well. We've been blessed. I tried to show you that about how those Jewish men and women there in Jerusalem would have gone back to all of those places they came from. God reversing Babel, if you like, reversing the curse. He's our restorer, our redeemer. He brings the nations back to himself because the earth is the Lord's and all that is in it. Psalms 82, 6 says, the nations are his inheritance. We all belong to our Father God, and it's incredible, and they've been such a blessing. But look at this, we can be a blessing too. Ruth chapter 4, 15 and 16. He shall be to you a restorer of life, a nourisher of your old age, because your daughter-in-law who loves you is worth more than seven sons, and he's given birth to him. The knowing he took the child and held him in her lap and became his nurse. Here's what I believe. The Bible says, one day all Israel will be saved. It's amazing, God makes the two-one, one new man. That's Ephesians, uh, the book of Ephesians. But God making the two-one, and uh, I love the picture of Rufus the church as well, in her kindness and a love, bringing that child and Naomi in her old age, and many people believe in the last days there will be this laying on the lap of Naomi of God's people, which is incredible, and and uh I'm really trusting and believing God for that. And finally, Leviticus 23, 15 to 17, that first shavuat, it's the instructions on how to celebrate it. I'm just gonna direct your eyes now to the second part where it says, You shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Yahweh from your dwelling places, and it says, Two loaves of bread will be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah, of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaveness first fruits. Two loaves. I like to think of that as Jew and Gentile. Two loaves brought in Jesus because the cross has made the two one. Yeah. And in the same way, the church is like Ruth, and Ruth was a blessing to Naomi. And Ruth uh Ruth was someone who's loyal and showed much has said to Naomi. So we are blessed to be a roof, a roof church. God is raising up a roof church in these days. This shavu what, and let's be a people that believe that God has not finished with his people. Absolutely. Let's be a church that is hungry as well for the Holy Spirit and say, God, I don't want to do it on my own. I don't want to be like those who made a golden calf because they couldn't wait for Moses. They got impatient. Instead of waiting for the presence, they wanted something visible. Yeah, and often let's never do that in church, by the way, if if like we get bored of waiting for the Holy Spirit, so we try and do it in our own strength. Let's always just wait. Because actually, that was gold that they got from Egypt, that was gold that Yahweh gave them to build his tabernacle. Your gifts, your energy, everything that God's given you, we use that for his presence, his glory. Let's remember that this Shabbat, let's wait on the Lord, like we said in Psalm chapter 14.