What Started at Pentecost

Filled! Not once, but forever! 
He came to me to live in me, 
to stay, always. 

He is the one who gives me power 
to do the work God planned for me— 
each day, his way. 

It started out at Pentecost, 
a day that changed the world, when he 
filled the disciples 

so that they could explain his truth 
to everyone, from anywhere, 
his Word understood! 

And now I know that he will show 
where I should go, who needs to know 
essential truth. 

I may not speak their language yet, 
but he empowers his messenger 
to learn, to grow. 

And he will make a way. He is 
always seeking the lost, his love 
always reaching. 

If you know me, you can hear my testimony in those words. The Lord sent me to the Nyarafolo people, whose language was not yet written down. The prospect of learning it, figuring it out, was truly daunting. In fact most of our advisors told us not to try—the people were resistant to the Good News, they said, and there were other jobs we could do. But the Master had made the calling clear, and we persisted. Looking back, I am amazed that we held on to this goal. It had to be a particular plan of the Lord, one he empowered us to do. My husband was given one year to learn it, then was needed at the hospital. I was able to continue.Through the years he sent the helpers I needed, and opportunities for more linguistic training. When a few Nyarafolos expressed their interest in knowing Jesus, it became clear that we needed access to God’s Word in their language in order to teach them. So many of the concepts that are key to the Good News were absolutely new to them. Yet the Lord had prepared the way, and now they have two-thirds of the Bible, the rest is in process, and churches are growing!

That was all his plan, not one any of us foresaw. That was his Spirit continuing what began at Pentecost: filling believers so that people of every language group in the world could someday know about him and his love for them!

This purpose is not just for “missionaries.” Maybe you have not been one he chose to send to another country, to another language group. But he does want each one of his loved ones to be ready to share the truth across cultural and ethnic boundaries. Who has he put in your path who is an immigrant, or from a different racial group or social strata than you? Each one of us needs to be awake, ready to reach out, because our Lord himself made this a priority.

Today Moise, my Nyarafolo coworker and I, just finished translating the book of Isaiah into Nyarafolo! (We are working long-distance, via the internet!) And in that last chapter I have noticed something that escaped my attention before. Lord Yahweh has explained that he is is aware that people are worshiping false gods. Nevertheless, he has a plan:

This is the LORD’s declaration. ¹⁸ “Knowing their works and their thoughts, I have come to gather all nations and languages; they will come and see My glory.  (Isa. 66:17b CSB)

At Pentecost, this plan was made clear when suddenly 3,000 people from many nations, who were visiting Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks, suddenly could understand each in their own language the truth being shared with them. Now it was being underlined for the disciples that God’s plan for the nations was taking off. Jesus had told them in his final words:

⁷ He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ⁹ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. ¹ (Acts 1:7-9 NIV)

I am learning rich insights from a book I just ran across:  Unlocking the Secrets of the Feasts: The Prophecies in the Feasts of Leviticus, by Michael Norten. He explains the history and meaning of the feasts from Scripture and from his interviews with messianic rabbis as well as rabbis in Israel. Since we just finished the season during which the Jews celebrate the four spring feasts, let me just share his summary of some key connections between them and the way God was fulfilling their purposes.

The Feast of Passover was a time to remember the slaying of the Passover lamb as the Israelites were being freed from slavery in Egypt. The prophetic message that it held was fulfilled by the Son of God, Jesus, who gave his life to ransom anyone who would accept his gift of freedom (pp. 37,40). His death even occurred at the time of day that Passover lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple (p. 22).

The Feast of Unleavened Bread follows the Passover; the first day is a remembrance of the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai, laws that were given to make it clear that all of us break God’s laws—we are sinful. Leaven stood for sin. Therefore this feast teaches “the concept of being in fellowship with the Lord” (p.17), being purified. As Paul wrote to believers:

Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch– as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:7 NIV)

Then there is the Feast of Firstfruits, tied to the harvest of barley. It occurred during the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the day after the weekly Sabbath, and that is when the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead (cf. Luke 24:1-3)! His resurrection is tied to the “firstfruits” (p. 28)in ways that I did not previously understand. This is how Paul explained it:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (1 Cor. 15:20–23 NIV)

Then there is the Feast of Weeks, that we know as Pentecost (fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits). This time the Jews were to bring to the Lord two loaves of bread, baked with leaven! Messianic rabbis told Norten that this bread now refers “to God’s people who receive the law and the Spirit,” (p. 36), both Gentiles and Jews. The Spirit purifies us, and we are now acceptable offerings to God. He descended visibly, with signs and wonders, at that Pentecost recounted in Acts 2, fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead at the Feast of Firstfruits! (pp. 40,41).

I love these connections that make clear God’s purpose to us as Gentile and Jewish believers today, in those historic feasts. We are now filled with the Spirit and empowered by him to do what God has planned for us, and to know his love that is so wide and deep that it reaches out to all people:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Eph. 3:16-21 NIV)

Yes, he can do more than all we ask or imagine! He has empowered me to participate in reaching the Nyarafolo, learning a language that is incredibly complex and challenging, working with his people there to bring the Word to them in their mother tongue. This is the God who is love, who loves all people, who gives us his Spirit to live in us and work through us. This gift is for each one of us who belongs to him. Amazing love! Amazing grace!

So, guided and empowered by the Spirit, let’s each do what he gives us to do!