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Introduction To Shavuot

God’s calendar begins in the spring with Passover. We eat the bitter herbs, remembering the bitterness of slavery in Egypt. We eat the matza, remembering our hurried deliverance from Egypt and our need to remove sin from our lives. We remember the blood of the lambs placed on the doors of our houses so that death would pass over us and we could be freed from slavery. We remember the greater death of Messiah, our Passover Lamb, who died on Passover to take away the sin of the world – in fulfillment of Passover.

During Passover, we celebrate the firstfruits of the barley harvest. The Messiah, who died on Passover, rose from the dead, in fulfillment of the holiday of Firstfruits – most likely, on the day of Firstfruits.

Then comes the next holiday – Shavuot, the holiday of weeks. Seven weeks and one day after we offered the firstfruits of the barley harvest, we returned to Jerusalem to offer the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. This was a prophecy that what began on firstfruits with the death and resurrection of the Messiah would be extended to more of humanity. Messiah’s followers would receive the Spirit of the Messiah. The Spirit of the Son of God would live in them, dwell in them, take up residence in them, transform, guide them and teach them.

In one sense, the holidays of Passover, Matza and Firstfruits are incomplete without Shavuot/Pentecost. It’s not enough to know that Yeshua is the risen and ascended Messiah and Lord who is at the right hand of God at this moment – full of life and grace and power and love. The demons know that – but they are not saved. We need to know the truth about Yeshua and then make a serious commitment to follow Him, become loyal to Him, and love and obey Him. When we do that, we are born again and receive the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 informs us that 50 days after Messiah was resurrected, Yeshua’s first followers were in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, and the Holy Spirit was given to them. That happened on the day of Shavuot – in fulfillment of Shavuot.

Shavuot is also about the creation of the one new man, the new united humanity – united to the Three-In-One God and united to each other in one great and eternal fellowship.

This is seen by the reversal of what happened at Babel. At Babel, a united humanity was divided by the confusion of languages. At Jerusalem, people were able to speak languages they didn’t know so others could be united to God and to each other and come together in a new united humanity.

Every human being is either part of the rebellion of Babel or has received the Holy Spirit and is part of the new united humanity.

Shavuot And The Giving Of The Holy Spirit

Shavuot is about God the Father and God the Son giving us Their Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is a person – a person without a body – but a person with mind, emotion and will.

We are born into this world with a nature that is in rebellion against God, a nature that is twisted, corrupted, perverted; a nature that is inclined to do wrong; a nature that dislikes God, a nature that is incompatible with God.

When we are saved, we are born again, and have a new, godly nature, and the Spirit of God takes up residence in us. He dwells in us. He lives in us – now and forever.

He does many wonderful things for us:

He unites us to the Father and the Son. He unites us to the other sons and daughters of God. He makes us into a new, united humanity, an eternal, loving community.

He guides us into the truth. He helps us understand the Word of God. He teaches us everything we need to know about God and salvation and how to live a righteous and truly successful life.

Not only does He help us know the truth, He empowers us to live according to the truth – something the Law can’t do. The Law is a great blessing, but it’s weak. For example, governments can pass good laws, but that doesn’t mean people will have the desire or the ability to obey those laws.

Congress may pass laws that all crimes must end and people must love each other and treat each other with respect – but crimes will still happen and people will not love each other and treat each other with respect.

In contrast to the weakness of Law to change hearts and minds and enable people to live God-honoring lives, the Holy Spirit empowers us to do what God has commanded us to do; and He empowers us to not do what God has commanded us not to do.

The Spirit produces fruit in us. Yeshua said: Live in Me, and I will live in you (and Yeshua lives in us by His Spirit living in us). For a branch can’t produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you can’t be fruitful unless you live in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who live in Me, and I live in them, will produce much fruit.

The old nature produces bad fruit: rebellion against God, sins of all kinds – sexual immorality, false religion, occult practices, hatred, quarreling, division, envy, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, drunkenness and other addictions.

The Spirit working through our new nature produces good fruit in us: love for God, love for people, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness to God and God’s Word, faithfulness to others, gentleness and self‑control.

Because He is the Spirit of Yeshua, the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Yeshua. The Spirit of Yeshua helps us love what Yeshua loves, want what Yeshua wants, value what Yeshua values.

If the Spirit of Yeshua is in us and filling us, and we are living in the Spirit, we will love God and want to please God – like Yeshua did. We will know the truth, believe the truth and want to live according to the truth. We will have an appetite for the Word of God – like Yeshua did.

We will hunger and thirst for righteousness. Sin will become more repulsive. Worldly success and wealth won’t be important to us – as was true of Yeshua.

We will want to be close to God and talk to Him and hear Him talking to us.

We will want to be with our brothers and sisters and get to know them and be involved in their lives and want to help them.

We will want to submit to God-ordained leaders in Messiah’s Community and want to help them build Messiah’s Community.

We will want to proclaim the message of salvation to everyone we can – like Yeshua did.

The Spirit gives us confidence that we belong to God. Now we call God, “Abba, Father.” For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. The Spirit assures us: “You really are a child of God – even thought you have sinned and missed the mark. Know that God’s ability to forgive your sin is greater than your sin. Know that God still loves you and you are still His child.”

The Spirit helps us pray according to God’s will, pray good prayers that God will hear and answer. And the Spirit helps us pray without words since we don’t always know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that can’t be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

There will be times when we’re upset, we’re troubled, we’re groaning. We know we need to pray but find it hard to pray, or we want to pray but don’t know what’s the right things to pray for. In those times, the Spirit of the Father knows what to pray for and prays to the Father for us.

We live in a satanically controlled world that is in rebellion against God and under a curse. It’s a world full of deadly lies and deception. We need help to arrive safely at our glorious destination. The Holy Spirit does that for us by sealing us. When someone seals something, it prevents that thing from being tampered with. The truth is that we have been sealed by the Spirit of Almighty God! There is no force in the universe able to break that seal! The Spirit’s wisdom and power and presence guarantee that we will arrive safely at our destination.

When we are saved, we receive the Holy Spirit who lives in us. After that, we need to be filled with the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit.

How do we do that? By allowing the Holy Spirit to guide every aspect of our life. We start with daily surrender – yielding our thoughts, actions, and desires to God.

Living in the Spirit involves cultivating spiritual disciplines like prayer, studying Scripture, and listening for God’s voice.

We don’t live in the Spirit by human strength, but by focusing on God and trusting Him to work through us. It’s a moment‑by‑moment dependence on God’s Spirit that empowers us for victorious living.

The message of Shavuot/Pentecost is simple – receive the Holy Spirit, be filled with the Spirit and live in the Spirit.

May the good Lord work in each one of us until that becomes a daily reality for each one of us. Amen?