Pentecost, The Call Israel, God's Love

Imagine you are traveling in the country side 2000 years ago in Palestine. You happen upon a group of men. You see 12 young men gathered around a person they seem to hold in high esteem. Some say He is a great Rabbi on the rise. Some say He may be a prophet and some even say He could be the Messiah of Israel. You learn that this man has a great following as well as people that hate His teaching.

You watch this man climb up a hill side and sit down. You see the 12 gather around him as well as the other followers. You always know that when a Rabbi or teacher sits down something important is going to come. The teaching you are about to hear is very important.

Matthew 5: 17-18
17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets ; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Knowing that the person that you just saw is Jesus and to hear Him say this makes you think, What is this Law that he is talking about? Some translations translate this verse as Jesus saying that the Torah would be fulfilled by Him. What is so important about this Torah that Jesus tells us tha the came to fulfill that Torah?

This morning we come together in this time together to investigate what is so great about this Torah. Why did the Jews hold it in high esteem? Where did it come from?
How did it get here?
Let us go back to what we have been studying in the Exodus account on Sunday mornings.

After Passover and the crossing of the Red Sea we see the Israelites go into the wilderness on their way to Mount Sinai. The event at Sinai would shape the rest of the Bible story and will be one of the key events in the history of Israel. This morning we will look at the arrival at Mount Sinai and will look at what God is trying to do with Israel.

This arrival and final giving of the Law to Israel will be 50 days after the Passover feast and leaving of Egypt.

Exodus 19: 1-6
In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness ; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain. 3 Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel :4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 5 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."


This is Pentecost – A Jewish Feast Originally.

Exodus 12 to 19 – We have an elapsing of 50 days

Pentecost – great celebration – God has given His very word or law at Pentecost.
This will be the very place that God will speak his word to man. This will be the place where God starts trying to reshape fallen humanity back into the image that we were intended to be.

This is the beginning of what some would call God's household rules. God was calling Israel to be His first born among the nations. This would be Israel's calling, vocation, and election.




I.God has called Israel to a specific vocation

Vocation and Election - God will make them a kingdom of priests – God chose Israel, this is not a selfish thing, this is a good thing. It is an election and calling for service.

Israel was called to be a light to the nations. A priest in the OT was one that acted as a go between man and God. It is better understood in our day as one that acted as a representative of God. God is actually calling Israel to be His representative to the nations.

Isaiah 42: 5-6
Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it And spirit to those who walk in it, 6 "I am the LORD, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,


Psalm 67 was an important Psalm in ancient Israel. The seven verses were of this Psalm were used in conjunction with the 7 lamps of the Menorah. Each verse of Psalm 67, which it has seven verses, each had a corresponding lamp in the Menorah. So the imagery would make sense to an Israelite. Just as the Menorah produced light, they were to be a light to the nations. This is their vocation, and this is a calling.
Psalm 67:
1 God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us- Selah. 2 That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise You, O God ; Let all the peoples praise You. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy ; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah. 5 Let the peoples praise You, O God ; Let all the peoples praise You. 6 The earth has yielded its produce ; God, our God, blesses us. 7 God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

In this Psalm we witness Israel praying for the pagan nations. We see a prayerful articulation of their call. This is what God had called them to be a light to the nations.

In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at as local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. "Your Majesty," said Prior Richard, "do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king." "I understand," said Henry, "The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you." "Then I will tell you what to do," said Prior Richard. "Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you."

When King Henry died, a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient."

This is what it means to be called to a vocation to serve God. People have misshaped the word vocation to mean your job. Your vocation is to serve Christ in whatever capacity you find your self. Henry the III found that he could best serve Christ as being a King obedient to the true King.

That is really one of the true tasks of the Church today is to teach Christians to fulfill this vocation and call. To remember that it is not your job that shapes who you are but Christ. In other words we work in our jobs explicitly to represent Christ and show Christ to others.

If we want Christ back in our schools – then teachers must go to work everyday for the specific purpose of working for Christ first and then the board of education second.

If we want more godly business working people must first be an ambassador for Christ first and then run their business in that way.

We must constantly ask the question about our jobs, If God were in charge of this world what would it look like?

If God were in charge of our workplaces what would they look like?

II.God wants to build a relationship with Israel

One False charge made against the OT is that the God of the OT is a God of wrath and no grace.

Some would even say that God's grace is not manifested until the New Covenant. I would say to those people, what do you think the sacrificial system of the OT was all about?

God gave avenues for His grace all throughout our Bibles.
One thing that we neglect is the fact that God wanted a relationship with Israel.

God didn't just want to tell Israel what to do and give them a type of MEGA LEGALISM

SOME SEE THE OT AS SOME TYPE OF LEGALISM.

Imagine if I met my wife for the first time and I walked up to her and told her that there would be a set of rules that she had to abide by if she were going to go on the date with me.

I doubt very seriously that Allison would have wanted to go on another date with me if I laid down the ground rules for dating me on the first date.
Once a couple meets and develops a relationship a set of boundaries are established along the way.

These boundaries would be understood because of the relationship that we develop.

We see the same thing happen with God and Israel- we see a relationship develop. We see God call Israel. Israel is God's elect and his first born.

We will see throughout the OT that when God gives Israel commands He reminds them that He is the God that lead them out of Egypt and did wonderful things for them.

In Exodus 19 verse 4 God reminds them of His love and protection.

Exodus 19: 4 –
'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself.

A beautiful image that God gives of His love for Israel. He bore them up on Eagle's wings and brought them to Himself.

Morning Prayer – put it over their heads and hold it out and they say Psalm 36 as they put on their prayer shawl. The shawl was a reminder of God's protective wings that overshadowed them.

Psalms 36: 7
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God ! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

God is bringing them to Sinai not for law or legalism but for relationship

Prayer at night would also bring out this image of God's protection and love.

Psalm 91
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust !" 3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence. 4 He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge ; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

God's gracious dealings with Israel – God wanted to protect and take care of Israel.



Exodus 20: verse 2 God reminds them before He gives the Law to Israel.

I am the Lord your God, that brought you out of bondage.

He develops a relationship and then gives the Law.

Verse 3 – Now the Laws are listed and it begins with:

YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.

You – Singular – this is to each one individually – God wants you to change.

God wanted a personal relationship with each Israelite. Yes he wanted to redeem the entire nation of Israel out of bondage but He wanted the heart of each individual Israelite.

The same is even more so for the New Covenant that God wanted to establish with all men and not just Israel. In the New Covenant through Jesus God wants to capture the hearts and love of all men.

This new covenant would find its fulfillment in Christ and His Ministry, His Cross, and His glorious Resurrection

Jeremiah 31: 31-33
31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. 33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people

In this new covenant God wants a relationship that captures our hearts. Just dead external works will no longer do. It will take a circumcision of the heart that the apostle Paul speaks of. It will take a personal, real relationship with Jesus Christ that God call us to.

What is even more beautiful is the image that Jesus give us in the New Testament.

III.God wants to recreate – reform – refresh Israel and mankind with His word

Much of the language in Acts 2 relies on Exodus 19

Exodus 20:18 – Not sound of trumpets – but voice of the trumpets- They saw the voice – Rabbis and Josephus called the voice of God at Sinai as 'tongues of fire'

God said all these words - Decalogue – Literally 10 words – 10 words or ten commandments

The Hebrew of the Exodus account literally states that the Israelites Saw the words of God and to the Hebrews they saw the word of God in the form of fire from the Mountain.

It is interesting that when the Peter and the apostles just 50 days after the Passover are in the Temple celebrating Passover we see something similar occur. We see in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost that celebrating the giving of the Law – the Torah – we see the coming Holy Spirit come with power on the Apostles.

The very day that the Jews celebrated the giving the Scriptures through the breath of God, Peter and the apostles have a supernatural experience.

Acts 2: 1-4
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance


In Acts 2 we see many of the parallels from the Exodus account. We witness sound from Heaven and fire. Literally tongues of fire upon the apostles.

We can start to draw out exactly what the Bible is telling us.

In John's account of the giving of the Spirit, we witness Jesus breathing upon the Disciples.

John 20: 21-23
21 So Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

This passage parallels the Genesis account

Genesis 2: 7
7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living being.

God formed man and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils
We see that Jesus breaths the breath of new life into the Apostles.

This fits right into the picture that Paul gives us of Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness ;

Paul tells us that the Scriptures are Theopneustos – or Literally Breathed out by God.

The very breath of God that brought life to man has now been breathed into the Scriptures.

The Scriptures are live giving because they come from the very breath of God.

Now lets tie all of this together.

At Pentecost we see the Israelites celebrate the giving of the Torah or the word of God.
The same God that spoke the universe into existence with His very word has now given the Israelites his words in the Scripture.

We turn to the New Testament and in Acts 2 at the very celebration of that event of Pentecost we see God do the same thing to the Apostles. He gives them His word and it is the Apostles that will spread that word.

We see this word spoken by the apostles and preached and eventually they will make into our Bibles as the New Testament. The very words of God. The same life giving words that gave life to the first man and brought the physical world into existence.

This is powerful stuff but we just cannot fathom how powerful the Scripture can be.

The Jews understood that God's purpose of the Torah or the Law of Moses was to bring order back to a fallen world. God wants to reform and reshape humanity by obedience to His word.

How powerful is it when we read His word, digest into our soul, practice it in our lives, and then sometimes using the Psalms sing them back to God in praise or even pray those words back to God.

Do we really believe that God's word can transform lives?
How could we doubt that? IF the God that created everything we see, breathed these very words into existence from His infinite wisdom, how could we believe any different?

Conclusion:

In today's lesson we learned of how God wanted to take Israel up on His wings and lead them to safety.

Jesus states something similar in Matthew 23: 37:
37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling .

This is the image of a barnyard fire in which a hen would gather her chicks up under her wings and let the fire ravage her body but all the while protecting the chicks. The hen would take the fire for the chicks.

In the same way Jesus wanted to take the heat for Jerusalem. Just a short time after this statement Jesus would go outside the walls and be crucified. He would die so that we could be gathered up under His wings.

He wants to give us his loving protection. Not protection from hardship or trials in this life but protection from sin and damnation. He wants us to be saved from the coming wrath to come when God will put the world to rights.

We want to allow Jesus to wrap His wings around us and take the heat for us.

1 John 5:13 tells us that these things have been written so that you man KNOW that you have eternal life. You may KNOW you have eternal life.
Jesus wants us to be assured of His love. In a world that will change and be in flux we can be assured that God loves us and wants to take us into His wings.