Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and Chag sameach Shavu'ot - a blessed feast of Weeks to you all (known by most as 'Pentecost') as today we have arrived at the 50th day following on from seven sabbaths of the Omer Count which started on the first day of Chag haMatzah or the Feast of Unleavened Bread last spring.

For those of you who are new to the annual festivals of Messianic Israel, let me give you a brief introduction to them by way of orientation before we get into the meat of my message today. Under the Old Covenant, there were three Regalim or Pilgrim Festivals in the Israelite Calendar which occurred in the spring, summer, and autumn (fall) when all Israel was required to appear "at the place that Yahweh ... cho[]se as a dwelling place for His Name" (Dt.16:2, NRSV). These three are known as Pesach (Passover - Mt.26:2), Shavu'ot (Weeks - Ac.2:1) and Sukkot (Tabernacles - Jn.7:2).

The Judahites in Yah'shua's (Jesus') day were not always faithful in obeying the mitzvot (commandment), especially those who lived far away, but those who were pious, like Joseph (Yosef) and Mary (Miriyam), went every year, as required by the Torah. In New Testament days the appointed or chosen place was Jerusalem, and prior to the construction of Solomon's Temple (and later, Zerubabel's and Herod's temples), the location was wherever the portable temple or 'Tabernacle' happened to be, whether in the Sinai Desert or at Shechem in the tribal territory of Ephraim in Northern Israel.

Unlike the churches and many messianics, you will notice that Messianic Evangelicals do not call this festival 'Pentecost' even though it is so translated in our English Bibles. It is properly called Shavu'ot or simply 'Weeks' (Ex.34:22; Dt.16:9-10). The Torah (Law) teaches that we are to count seven weeks after the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed by another 50 days, which in total is around 14 weeks or 100 days, or two lots of 50's, and the Greek for '50' being pentękostęs. Most Christians and Messianics count only one set of 50 so the festival is 50 days early, making what is a summer festival into a late spring festival.

There are many reasons why we know this to be wrong, not least of which is the fact that Shavu'ot is the time of the Wheat Harvest as opposed to the earlier Barley Harvest which takes place in the spring, a reason why this festival is also called Chag haKatzir or 'Feast of the Harvest' (Ex.23:16) and, a little confusingly, Yom haBikkurim or the Day of Firstfruits (specifically, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest - Num.28:26) as opposed to the first Yom haBikkurim which is the firstfruits of the barley harvest in the spring [1]. If you would like to study this controversy in greater depth, then you will find a link on our website to an article which references three other articles at its end which establish beyond any reasonable doubt that this is the right time for the festival.

So, the controversy aside, what happened at Shavu'ot anciently? The firstfruits of the wheat harvest were presented to Yahweh in the Tabernacle or Temple. The offering consisted of two loaves of bread baked with leavened wheat flower (Lev.23:17) and thus the nation of Israel celebrated Yahweh's providence at the start of the wheat season. So Shavu'ot is one of the agricultural festivals of Messianic Israel, rooting the nation in the rhythm of the seasons, and is its primary meaning.

Much, later - possibly in the second and third centuries A.D - a secondary meaning was added to Shavu'ot by the rabbis, which made it a commemoration of the giving of the Divine Torah or Law to Moses on Mt.Sinai [2], though there are those like Louis Finkelstein who believe, as I do, that this occurred in the pre-messianic era several centuries before [3].

How do Christians, Messianics and non-Messianic Jews justify celebrating 'Pentecost' in the third month rather than the fourth, as we are doing today? Because of this passage:

"In the third month ('On the third new moon' - NRSV) after the Israelites left Egypt -- on the very day -- they came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain" (Ex.19:1-2, NIV).

Therefore the later rabbis concluded that the Torah was given in the third month, which is probably why they decided to observe Shavu'ot seven weeks earlier. However, this passage of scripture does not say that the children of Israel arrived at Mt.Sinai on the third Rosh Chodesh or New Moon (marking the beginning of the month), nor that Moses went up the mount on the very same day they arrived.

The Sinai desert covers a very large area indeed, irrespective of whether you are a traditonalist and believe Mount Sinai is in the modern Sinai Peninsular or whether, like myself, you believe it was in what is now Saudi Arabia. We may never know the exact geography of the Exodus though we can make some reasonable guesses. One thing is clear: there is little doubt that there is an association between Shavu'ot and the giving of the Ten Commandments and indeed the whole Torah.

You need to remember that the Israelites spent 11 months and 5 days at Mt.Sinai, a little under one month short of a whole year, and that the giving of Torah didn't occur all in one day. Moses went up Mt.Sinai several times to meet with Yahweh to get instructions, at least eight times by my reckoning. Read through Exodus 19 for the full account.

The one thing that is certain is that the Israelites arrived at the Sinai Desert at the beginning of the third month and did not leave until the second month the following year, so whether Shavu'ot fell on the third or fourth months is not so important as far as making an historical connection between the Wheat Harvest and the giving of the whole Torah are concerned.

And so we see a sacred tavnith in the relationship between the divine moedim or appointments commanded by Yahweh to be observed and key historical events. Thus:

• 1. Pesach (Passover) celebrated the exodus from Egypt, and has the creation of the Israelite Nation as its theme;
• 2. Shavu'ot (Weeks) has as its theme revelation, the receiving of Torah; and
• 3. Sukkot (Tabernacles) is associated with the 40 years of wandering culminating with entry into the Promised Land, making its theme redemption.

The Second, Last or Final Exodus of Yahweh's people has already started in our day, and we are in its fourth year, with around 36 more to go. As we look back into the Old Covenant in search of types for today, we see that there must be a total exodus from the world system for every living soul of the Remnant, followed by a divine revelation calling them into this work, as is represented by the feast we are observing today, the tail end of my generation and the whole of the next one.

Just as the First Exodus under Moses encompasses creation, revelation and redemption not only over a 40 years span but every year, so we must be recreated anew, get fresh revelation and obtain redemption from our sins each year until we have finally overcome and are clean before our Creator.

We cannot, though, understand the fullness of Shavu'ot (Weeks) without understanding its context in the New Covenant. Obviously we do not observe Shavu'ot today in exactly the same way as our forefathers did, but the tavnith or pattern is the same. To understand the events in Acts 2 properly we have to have a clear picture of what transpired at Sinai. Without that background, we will misunderstood what Yahweh did to the infant messianic community (church) at the first Messianic Shavu'ot in Jerusalem, where they were commanded to wait until they had received the anointing (Lk.24:49) which propelled the talmidim (disciples) into the world, filling them with the sanctifying fire of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). And with that, they set the world ablaze with light and emet (truth).

Part of what we have to understand about the Messianic Shavu'ot, as compared with the hopelessly diluted - and in many cases, perverted - 'Pentecost' of the modern churches, is that the first effect of this unparalleled anointing and Spirit-filling was that it fulfilled a prophecy given by the navi (prophet) Jeremiah:

"'The time is coming,' declares Yahweh,
'when I will make a B'rit Chadashah (New Covenant)
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
It will not be like the b'rit (covenant)
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my b'rit (covenant),
though I was a husband to them,'
declares Yahweh.
'This is the b'rit (covenant) I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,' declares Yahweh.
"I will put my Torah (Law) in their minds
and write it on their hearts" (Jer.31:31-33, NIV)

There are three vitally important points in this prophecy about the first Messianic Shavu'ot, wrongly called 'Pentecost', that we must not miss, but which is missed in the orthodox Christian world:

• 1. There are two entities or groups of people who receive this New Covenant, even though they are, in a sense - and will eventually become - echad or one at some future date, namely Israel and Judah which together are also Israel, as they once were before the division after Solomon;
• 2. The Torah that is prophesied to be written on the hearts of these future Israelites is (more or less, minus the sacrificial system and its administering Levitical Priesthood) the same one given to Moses - all the moral and ethical laws, plus some of the ordinances, remain part and parcel of this renewed people; and
• 3. The writing of the Torah on believers' hearts can only be accomplished by an outpouring of the Ruach (Spirit) - indeed, the same Elohim (God) gives both Torah and Ruach (Spirit), and are thus in one sense, echad or one, and at the same time at Shavu'ot, on Israel's fourth annual festival. Thus, as Moses was given Torah on Mt.Sinai, so the same Israelites, many generations down the line, received it in a new way, inscribed on their minds and hearts, by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), thus stretching history across the centuries in an unbroken chain, from the fire of Mt.Sinai to the fire of the first Messianic Shavu'ot, wrongly called 'Pentecost', in Jerusalem.

You cannot separate Torah and Israel from what happened in Jerusalem in that Upper Room and say they are two separate and entirely different entities. Yes, they bind two entirely separate Covenants, Old and New - this is absolutely true - but that is not to say that 2,000 years ago, those of this New Covenant suddenly became lawless antinomians permitted to do whatever they wanted. This event - the first Messianic Shavu'ot or 'Pentecost', so called, was a 'filling up' or 'completion' of what had been revealed before at Sinai (Mt.5:17).

These first believers, and indeed all believers after them prior to the great falling away, all observed the weekly Seventh-Day Sabbath, they all observed the monthly New Moon festival known as Rosh Chodesh, they all observed the Seven Annual Festivals, they all observed the Niddah (mensturation) laws, they all observed the Kashrut or food laws, and indeed, much else besides which would have been familiar to the Judahites alive at the First Messianic Shavu'ot but they did so with renewed minds and renewed hearts in a way that had never been done before. A transformation had taken place.

These people did not forsake any of these things in order to celebrate pagan festivals like Christmas, Easter, the Roman calendar with its counterfeit 'Saturday' and 'Sunday' sabbaths, nor did they compromise with Yahweh's clearly stated sexual and moral laws in general because all of these continued as before, unchanged.

Therefore no-one failing to continue in these things, by proclamation and in very deed, may ever claim to be the inheritors of the biblical 'Spirit of Pentecost'. Anyone claiming to be a 'Pentecostal', or to be 'Spirit-filled', or anything like that, who rejects the Torah - in part or in whole - and rejects the eternal nature of Shavu'ot (minus the Messiah-fulfilled blood sacrifices and Levitical priesthood system), demonstrates that the prophecy has not been fulfilled in them because the Torah is not properly "in their minds" and not "written on their hearts" - it is fraudulent and they are following 'another spirit'. And another line of evidence is their hostility to certain of the mitzvot (commandments) which jarr with those traditions and personal beliefs.

That is why there is so much false prophecy, false tongues and false doctrine - not just among Chairsmatic Christians but among all antinomian orthodox believers! The conditions on which the authentic Messianic Shavu'ot Baptism of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and of Fire that are given are most strict! NONE of the first talmidim (disciples) were modern Evangelicals, whether charismatic or non-charismatic, whether cessationist or contintinuationist, whether Arminian or Calvinist, or any other doctrinal and practical criteria that are owned by not only Protestantism but Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy too!

Why is this so important? Because the Ruach (Spirit) is everything to the New Covenant Christian! What good is it if you possess the Scriptures but read them through the lens of another spirit, one that is lawless and antinomian? What good is that?! That is why there are 34,000+ denominations, and growing in number all the time, which exist in the world today! This multiplicity of confusion results precisely because there is no authentic, true, genuine Spirit of Shavu'ot! This madness persists and multiplies precisely because there is no Spirit of Pentecost amongst these bodies! Am I saying that there is no Spirit amongst them at all? Not at all! By no means! There is ample evidence of the Ruach (Spirit) everywhere but believers forget that the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is not yachid or one single entity or Being but an echad unity of seven Ruachot! There are SEVEN Spirits of Elohim (God), not one, and all of them stand before the Throne of Yahweh our Father in Heaven, even as it is written:

"Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the Seven Ruachot (Spirits) before his throne, and from Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth" (Rev.1:4-5, NIV).

Without grasping the sevenfold plurality if the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) you will never fully understand what is going on in the churches and messianic assemblies, never fully understand why there is no much division, and never fully understand how Yahweh could be working through so many of them even though they conflict with each other in teachings and practices. And that is because those who do possess the Ruach (Spirit), in whatever degree, operate under different sets of the Ruach (Spirit). Do you know how to discern between them? Though they are actually named in the Scriptures, we shall stick with their numbers as I don't want to get into a debate on who is what today, as it is not important:

• 1. Ruach haRishom (First Spirit);
• 2. Ruach haShanee (Second Ruach);
• 3. Ruach haShleshi (Third Ruach);
• 4. Ruach haRevee (Fourth Ruach) - which corresponds with Shavu'ot;
• 5. Ruach haChamashee (Fifth Ruach);
• 6. Ruach ha Sheshi (Sixth Ruach); and
• 7. Ruach haShibi'i (Seventh Ruach).

These seven Ruach'ot (Spirit) stand before the Throne of Elohim (God), as we have seen, and correspond to the seven lamps, candlearbres or Menorah, each of which has seven arms. As it is written:

"From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven Ruachot haElohim (Spirits of God)" (Rev.4:5, NIV).

Each of these represents one of seven degrees of perfection in Messiah brought about by seven degrees of submission and obedience. For the purpose of illustration, they are used to symbolise seven of the congregations in John's day, known by us as the Seven Assemblies (Churches) of Asia Minor, just as the King of Tyre is used prophetically as an illustration of Lucifer and his fall (Ezek.28:11-19). Every assembly today naming Messiah is also represented symbolically by this seven-armed candlearbre or Menorah but not all the lights are lit. Indeed, in the vast majority of churches on this earth, wherein there is no spiritual regeneration at all - because no one has been born again - no light is lit at all.

Here is a diagram which will be familiar to most of you showing the seven Ruachot (Spirits) and their correspondences with the Seven Annual Festivals:

You will notice that Shavu'ot - the fourth annual festival - is in the middle. No spiritually born-again believer can come up to Shavu'ot (Weeks) who has not received its spiritual anointing in the New Covenant. There must first be a solemn covenant of obedience made to Yahweh and His Torah, in front of witnesses, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) being the Living Torah. The Ruach haRevee is not given to a believer who has not entered into qadosh, holy, set-apart, sacred covenants of Torah-obedience. No one who has not received the Ruach haShavu'ot or the Spirit of Pentecost in this way can come up to this anointing. It is inmpossible! The only reason that those first talmidim (disciples) received the Spirit of Shavu'ot, wrongly called 'Pentecost', was because they were ALREADY covenanted to obey Torah, as their fathers had been, and as their fathers had been before them. No one who has not received this Covenant in NCAY can receive a Priesthood calling.

Today those coming to Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) either come with no, or little, Torah or they bring along with them a corrupted form of Torah with them from Judaism, so they require much instruction in the ways of Yahweh. How, then, shall we know who those of the first three Ruachot (Spirits) are? It's childishly simple, in fact.

• 1. Those who make a decision to seek after Messiah receive the Ruach haRishon, the First Ruach, undergoing a spiritual conception;
• 2. Those who made a decision to pursue holiness and purity receive the Ruach haMatzah, the Second Ruach, something they will have to work on all their lives, since there will always be parts of us that are impure that we are not immediately aware of;
• 3. Those who wish to surrender their lives completely to Yah'shua (Jesus) and wish to make themselves perpetual bond-servants to the Master, inviting Him to fully take up residence in their levatot or hearts, are spiritually regenerated by the Ruach haBikkurim, the Third Ruach, and become a kind of firstfruits. They enter a covenant formally in the presence of witnesses through the ordinance of baptism to always be His faithful talmidim (disciples).

When Yah'shua (Jesus) spoke of Himself as the lechem chayim or "bread of life" (Jn.6:35) he was pointing to the second of those three feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Chag haMatzah, which was a special kind of lechem (bread) free of yeast which leaven in the Tanakh (Old Testament) symbolised sin. Thus Yah'shua (Jesus) represented Himself as sinless and those of us who eat of Matzah are acquiring that sinlessness through emunah (faith) in Messiah and the conscious pursuit of holiness. It was this Matzah which inaugurated the B'rit Chadashah or New Covenant as represented in the Master's Supper:

"And He (Yah'shua) took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me'" (Luke 22:19, NIV).

"In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the B'rit Chadashah (New Covenant) in My blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20, NIV).

Chag haMatazah, the seven day-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, lasts seven days, because seven represents completeness - the pursuit of holiness is a life-long work until death prevents us from striving any longer, and it is to this that the Blood of Atonement is applied, for which the lamb was sacrificed at Pesach or Passover (1 Cor.5:6; 1 Jn.1:5). Are you seeing how these feasts link together and how they represent our own spiritual journey of systematic cleansing, regeneration and - ultimately - perfection, which He has commanded of us (Mt.5:48) but which so few Christians are willing to do, let alone know they are supposed to?

The language of the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) is saturated in Tanakh (Old Testament) imagery, as we are seeing, and there is a reason why Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is also called the bikkurim or "firstfruits":

"But in fact Messiah has been raised from the dead, the bikkurim (firstfruits) of those who have died. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a man; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Messiah. But each in his own order: Messiah the bikkurim (firstfruits), then at His coming those who belong to Messiah" (1 Cor.15:20-23, NRSV et al - also see Rom.8:29).

This bikkurim imagery points back to the third festival of Yom haBikkurim, or the Day of Firstfruits of the barley harvest, Yah'shua (Jesus) being the firstfruits of the resurrection. Therefore this third festival, and those who receive the third Ruach (Spirit), are also looking forward to a future physical resurrection even though they are enjoying the spirit of that resurrection in the here and now.

These three Ruachot or Spirits - Rishon, Shanee and Shleshi - therefore correspond to the three Spring Moedim Appointments or Festivals and represent the beginning of our work in Messiah. You can look around and more-or-less see where modern believers are in relationship to these three, though obviously only Yahweh sees the whole picture and the details, so it would be wrong of us to go around categorising people. There are those searching after Messiah, there are those pursuing holiness and then, during the second day of Chag haMatzah or the Feast of Unleavened Bread - at Yom haBikkurim (Firstfruits) - there are those who make a life-long ... and indeed eternity-long...commitment to Yah'shua the Messiah (Spirit) through symbolically dying as they are immersed in water and symbolically coming into new life as they arise from the water, which is supposed to have been preceeded by a genuine submission to the Master by dying to self-sovereignty and handing all of the self over to Him. That is when supernatural things start occurring in a spectacular way, just as the physical resurrection of Messiah was spectacular. Most, if not all, Evangelical Christians mistake this rebirth at Yom haBikkurim for the Baptism of Fire at Shavu'ot when it isn't! Shavu'ot represents another - a second harvest, the Wheat Harvest, and a different category of resurrection.

It is at this transition between the third and fourth festivals - between Yom haBikkurim (firstfruits of the barley harvest) and Shavu'ot (firstfruits of the wheat harvest) - where the big deceptions are, and have been, taking place in the Body of Messiah, which are now coming to a dark fruition leading to major troubles and apostacy. There have long been Christians who claim to have received this Baptism of Fire who are lawless and who have made no communal covenants as is demanded and required by Yahweh at Shavu'ot, and who demonstrate the chaotic spirit they have admitted into themselves by speaking in gibberish and calling it biblical 'tongues'? Read through Acts 2, when this Baptism of Fire was received by the Torah-obedient talmidim (disciples) assembled in that upper room, and you will see that ALL of them were articulating KNOWN languages and dialects which were naturally spoken by those in attendance which they recognised as their own domestic tongues. ALL OF THEM. Acts 2 gives a detailed list of languages - Parthian, Medean, Elamite, Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Cappadocian, Pontian, Asiatic, Phrygian, Pamphylian, Egyptian, the Libyan spoken near Cyrene, Cretan and Arabic to name but those mentioned. The first Messianic Shavu'ot or 'Pentecost', so-called, had ZERO to do with the tongue-speaking gibberish of the kind used by pentecostals and charismatics and nothing to do with all the wild writhing on the ground, being slain and getting possessed as we see in the charismatic churches.

Now I don't want to make this a sermon about tongues - there are dozens of articles on this subject on our website for deeper study - because the issue here is really about communal compliance with Yahweh's Kingdom Law or Torah. Baptists, Methodists, and other non-charismatics, and others believe that they receive the Baptism of Fire when they are born again which is also wrong because the Third Spirit - the Ruach haShleshi - is not the Fourth Spirit - the Ruach haRevee! Whether they are charismatic or non-charismatic they make a fundamental error of identification, making no distinction between the Seven Ruachot (Spirits) just as they make no distinction between resurrections and their glories. And it is at this point that false spirits may easily enter in and start subverting souls or at the very least start fossilising them, binding them like spiritual infants to the cradle. It is through lawlessness that Satan stunts believers' spiritual development which they then exalt as presumed adulthood.

Now, do you remember the two loaves I mentioned to you earlier - the two loaves (representing Israel and Judah) that were presented at Shavu'ot? Unlike the matzah bread of Chag haMatzah, these were made of leavened bread. Why? Because Shavu'ot is the first COLLECTIVE or COMMUNAL covenant - Yahweh's people taken as a whole still have the leaven of sin in them. We have moved on from the spring festivals, which is about individuals like you and me, and we have now moved on to groups of people, namely:

• 1. Husbands and wives;
• 2. Parents and children;
• 3. Pastors and the Patriarch Heads of Households;
• 4. Clan Chiefs and Clans;
• 5. Tribal Heads and individual Israelite Tribes;
• 6. The Prince of Israel and the Twelve Tsraelite Tribes; and
• 7. Messiah and all Israel.

The Shavu'ot (Weeks) Covenant and Anointing is on a wholly different level to that of the Spring festivals and the covenants of seeking Messiah, pursuing holiness, and fully surrendering to Yah'shua (Jesus) as Master (Lord), Deliverer (Saviour) and Sovereign (King). Now we enter a totally different category of covenant and relationship - in many ways, the hardest, because when groups of people come together, there are inevitably clashes of will so long as the flesh holds sway. The very nature of this Collective or Communal Covenant is therefore PATRIARCHAL or Father-ruling. And one (or many) reason(s) modern Christians hate this aspect of the Besorah (Gospel) is because the spirit of this world is vehemently anti-patriarchal, a disease that has spread to not only liberal churches (where it is terminal) but also conservative ones where the other false concept of coheadship has taken root as seen by more and more weak, girly and effeminite ministers trying to lead who have been corrupted by feminism.

Why has this happened? To answer that, we must answer another question, and that is, why did Yahweh choose the Torah-based moed, appointment, festival or holiday associated with Shavu'ot (Weeks) to be connected to the sending of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to empower the entire Messianic Community (Church) as one Body by giving each individual in that community the power to bring that Body to completion, like a Bride being prepared for her Bridegroom? Because He expects us to make the connections to the events of Sinai and what Yahweh gave in the form of His Kingdom Law Book - the Torah (Law) - as well as His Kingdom or National Covenant. You see, the highest and most glorious kind of relationship is that between One and Many, as between Yahweh and the Children of Istael, as between Messiah and born-again, holiness-pursuing, and Messiah-serving talmidim (disciples), as between husband and his wife (or wives), as between parents and their children (until such a time as they leave home and start their own families), as between a local presiding patriarch or pastor of a community of other patriarchs (along with their families) in an assembly, congregation or church, and so forth.

The one-to-one 'stuff' is easy by comparison - it's when we have to work cooperatively, and in covenant-relationship together, with people outside our immediate family, whose habits and issues may be very different to our own - that is where the 'hard' discipleship starts. And because it's hard, Yahweh in His grace, has given us another Ruach (Spirit) - the Ruach haRevee (Fourth Spirit) - to equip us in the welding together of such diverse people united by a common Pesach (Passover) purpose, all pursuing the same Matzah journey of holiness, and all covenanted at Yom haBikkurim to be bond-servants of our Saviour. This is the raw-material of Shavu'ot and this is what the Ruach haShavu'ot is supposed to enable us to do, the Spirit of Pentecost. And because the Body is never satisfied to remain static, the Ruach haRevee drives those who have received the Shavu'ot Anointing to cooperately evangelise the world under proper headships and authorities.

The Spirit of Shavu'ot dramatically affects the effectiveness and power with which we evangelise. We can evangelise from Yom haBikkurim onwards, witnessing on a one-to-one basis, and that's a very important way to witness. But in addition, there is to be the witness of preachers in pulpits and the evangelists and apostles on the streets where large bodies of souls may be addressed and called, with the apostles organising the Kingdom according to strict Torah rules as both evangelists and patriarch-rulers over the whole Messianic Community.

The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) has many important functions in the New Covenant and one of them is to lead hearts into all emet (truth), even as it is written:

"But then the Ruach Emet (Spirit of Truth), She will lead you in all emet (truth), for She will not speak from the mind of the nephesh (flesh) but all that She hears, that will She speak, and She will make known to you future things. And She will glorify Me (Yah'shua/Jesus), because from Mine She will take and will proclaim to you" (Jn.16:13, HRV).

Now I don't have time to go into why the Ruach (Spirit) is female in Hebrew and Aramaic as that is the topic of a whole other sermon. The point that I want to underline here is this: just as technically-speaking the Hebrew word Torah means 'teaching' and not 'law', so the Torah teaches Yahweh-Elohim's emet (truth). And in exactly the same way, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) teaches Elohim's (God's) emet (truth), not Her own, or even that of the Son, because the emet (truth) of the Father, and the emet (truth) of the Son, and the emet (truth) of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) are identical. There is no conflict between them (Jn.14:25; 15:26; 16:13). This is what you need to remember: the emet (truth) of the Torah set forth in the Tanakh (Old Testament) is NOT different from the emet (truth) of the Torah set forth in the Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). The Messiah's Torah is not different from, or an improvement on, Yahweh-Elohim's Torah because, as David testified:

"The Torah of Yahweh is perfect" (Ps.19:7).

Brethren and sisters, you cannot improve on that which is perfect. The apostle Paul calls it "qadosh (holy, set-apart), just and good" (Rom.7:12, NKJV). What more could one ask? So what is the dfifference, if any, between the Old and New Covenants? Simply, the receptiveness of those for whom the Torah is meant, due to having a new spirit and a heart of flesh, even as the navi (prophet) Ezekiel wrote:

"I will give you a new heart and put a new ruach (spirit) in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Ruach (Spirit) in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My torot (laws)" (Ezek.36:26-27, NIV).

The Torah is now to be supernaturally inscribed on the heart so that what is written may become living (Jer.31:32), a heart receptive to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). But, if those torot (laws) are not supernaturally inscribed on the heart, and if instead the laws of man and/or demons are found inscribed there, then what kind of 'spirit' is going to be animating that heart? Just imagine any cardinal torot (laws) that are not inscribed on the heart of a believer because his minister has told him they have been done away with or nailed to the cross? Now you may think that eating bacon sandwiches is a minor thing but Yahweh has declared in His Kashrut laws that pork is unclean and that there is a curse on those who eat it. How then can the antinomian apply eating pork to the mitzvah (commandment) to pursue the holiness and purity required of Chag haMatzah, the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Well, you may think swine's flesh to be inconsequential, and, the health risks aside, this nevertheless still constitutes disobedience. And if you are disobedient, you give the Enemy legal rights to cause you trouble.

You may think that food cleanliness is trivial but according to Yahweh that is part of that perfection to which He has called us through His Son. Certainly, you could find more serious torot (laws) you could break. Look how lax the churches are these days about adultery, yet adultery is the second greatest sin after murder in Yahweh's eyes, and those who commit it are opening the floodgates to demonic infestation followed by the usual self-justification. You don't need me to make a list for you of the many torot (laws) and the consequences of disobeying them. And remember, at Shavu'ot, it's not just your personal relationship with Yah'shua (Jesus) that is spoiled through disobedience, but the whole Messianic Community is spoiled, just as it was in the days of Achan when he robbed the spoils of Jericho that had been set-apart to Yahweh (Josh.7). Breaking any of the torot (laws) will open you up to harrassment and deception. If you swing a door widely open through disobeying Torah, then I guarantee mischievous religious spirits will slip in and try to imitate the Ruach (Spirit), justifying your lawlessness. Hence the importance of the Shavu'ot covenants.

The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) makes the Torah even more real to a believer (2 Cor.3:6-18) and the giving of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) on the First Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') only underscores the significance of the giving of the Torah to Israel by Yahweh through Moses at the very first Shavu'ot of all at Mt.Sinai. Because Christian priests and theologians have come up with the heresy that Messiah has somehow 'relaxed the rules' established by His Father and disbanded such things as inferior or useless, the vast majority of the Body of the Messiah has lost a vast chunk of emet (truth) and is both impoverished thereby and open to legions of counterfeit spirits. That's why there are 34,000+ denominations. If Christianity returned to Torah then that number of 34,000 or so churches could be radically parred down to less than a hundred, in essence, the difference between various messianic groups and messianic evangelicals. That's a huge improvement. By making Torah the standard of our teaching, the controversy is diminished by 99 per cent and that's a huge step forwards. And that, in part, is one of the callings of this end-time work. That's why I am so impassioned about it because Yahweh has anointed me for the task.

David H. Stern, translator of the Complete Jewish Bible (CJV) which sprang out of his earlier Jewish New Testament (JNT) has found eight parallels between the First Sinai Shavu'ot and the First Messianic Shavu'ot, seven of which I agree with and are as follows:

• 1. At both the Sinai Shavu'ot and the Messianic Shavu'ot, Torah was delivered to Yahweh's people. At Sinai the Ten Devarim or Commandments were written on tables of stone by the "finger of Elohim" (Ex.31:18), while at Jerusalem the Torah was written on tables of the heart (2 Cor.3:6-18), in fulfilment of the prophecies of Jermiah (Jer.31:32) and Ezekiel (Ezek.36:26). Far from replacing, canceling, or contradicting the Torah of Moses, the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) confirms it for Christian/Messianic believers: "Do we, then, nullify the Torah (Law) by this emunah (faith)? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Torah (Law)" (Rom.3:31, NIV);

• 2. Both took place at Shavu'ot, the Feast of Weeks;

• 3. Both were accompanied by theophanies, that is to say, appearances of Elohim (God);

• 4. Both were accompanied by many languages (Ac.2:4b-13), the Messianic Shavu'ot being a symbolic reversal of Babel (Gen.11:1-9). At that early time, Yahweh confounded the speech of the people who were misusing their unity for sinful purposes - we get our English word 'babble' from Babel, another reason why speaking gibberish of babbling nonsense does not fulfil the type but rather speaks against it! Charismatic-type babbling symboplically aligns them with those who were cursed by Elohim (God)! But in Jerusalem Yahweh enabled people whose different languages separated them to understand each other praising Yahweh which is the proper use of unity. The reaction to the spiritual outpouring at the First Messianic Shavu'ot was to divide those present into two groups:

  • a. Pious Judeans who were amazed and confused (vv.5,12) but open to being taught; and
  • b. The others who riddiculed the talmidim (disciples), accusing them of being drunk (v.13)

• 5. Both were accompanied by fire - the fire at Sinai was a single fire visible to all whereas the fire in Jerusalem divided itself into 'tongues' and rested on each talmid (disciple) individually. Thus at Sinai the Torah was given externally to the people or nation as a whole, whereas at Jerusalem the Torah was put within each individual believer;

• 6. At Sinai a mixed multitude (erev rav, Ex.12:28) accompanied the people out of Egypt just as people were present from many countries at the First Messianic Shavu'ot in Jerusalem; and

• 7. Torah means 'teaching', and the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is the Teacher. [4]

Thus the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, saying:

"For out of Zion will go forth Torah, and the Davar (Word) of Yahweh from Jerusalem" (Isa.2:3b, CJB).

"For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors" (Isa.37:32, NIV).

As the Sinai Shavu'ot was the birthday of the newly covenanted Nation of Israel, so the First Messianic Shavu'ot was the birthday of Messianic Israel, the community of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones), a remnant out of the original covenant nation which rejected both King Yah'shua (Jesus) and the Kingdom newly planted within. Messianic Israel is the continuation Nation of Israel - they are not two separate things - and Yahweh did not restore the latter in 1948 in Palestine. The Promised Land will not house the Nation of Messianic Israel until the Second Coming of Messiah. There was no second 'Sinai Shavu'ot' in 1948 for not only was there no need of this but the establishment of the Middle Eastern state had nothing in common with the seven similarities between the Sinai and Jerusalem Shavu'ot's. The modern Zionist state is quite simply a counterfeit.

Today we have spoken of the second harvest - the wheat harvest - which is Shavu'ot and also briefly mentioned the first harvest - the barley harvest - which is Yom haBikkurim. But there is a third harvest to come - the grape harvest - which is Sukkot. Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Master of all three harvests. This is why the Saviour speaks of a "harvest" of people with prepared hearts at Matthew 9 and John 4:

"The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few: therefore ask the Master (Lord) of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest" (Mt.9:37-38, NRSV).

"Do you not say, 'Four months more [5], then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting'" (Jn.4:35, NRSV)

May the Master of the Harvest bless us all and endow us with an abundance of the Ruach haRevee today so that we may be even more effectively about the Master's business, preaching the gospel of salvation, healing the sick, and building the Kingdom according to true tavnith (pattern). Grace and peace to all of you in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] These two Yom haBikkurim's or two different 'Days of Firstfruits' has caused some confusion in a number of denominations, especially those originating with Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and its spin-offs (like the United Church of God) who don't observe Yom haBikkurim at all. The table below explains the error: