Passover to Pentecost – Gifts from the Spirit

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Passover to Pentecost – Gifts from the Spirit        Week 7 Day 4

We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. Romans 12: 6(NIV)    Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 1 Corinthians 12:7(NIV)

Jesus ascended so he could send the Holy Spirit.  The disciples probably had a good idea of the workings of the Spirit because of the many things He did in the Old Testament.  The gifts of the Spirit are mentioned frequently in the New Testament.  Gifts are given to people and in the case of spiritual gifts the person receiving them is supposed to use them for the Church of the Living God, who by the way does not change.

Paul was a great list writer and sometimes those lists seem to change form epistle to epistle.  The problem with list is how people handle them.  The first thing in the list is the best, or you will “receive” them in that order, or any number of things that can be turned into hard and fast rules.  I have used two different lists from Paul’s writings, both are list of gifts.  Paul just put the word spiritual in front of the ones to a more gifted Corinthian church.  Brother Joseph Prince groups the nine gifts into three groups in order to help you learn/remember them easier:

  • Vocal Gifts – Prophecy, Interpretation of Tongues, and Tongues (personal prayer language)
  • Knowledge Gifts – Words of Wisdom, Words of Knowledge, and Distinguishing of Spirits
  • Power Gifts – Faith (for special things), Healing, and Miraculous Powers

The gifts in Romans I divided into two groups:

  • Building Up Gifts – Prophesying, Teaching, Encouraging, and Showing Mercy
  • Building Out Gifts – Serving, Contributing, and Leadership

These gifts are for the Church.  In the Old Testament when the Holy Spirit “came upon” someone it was for the good of the Nation or God was protecting someone in the Nation.  The phrase “came upon” is translated from several different words that might suggest different levels of anointing. (I will study this topic out in a later post.)

The judges Othniel, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson are noted for having the Spirit “come upon” them so they could lead the Nation in times of trouble.  Several people are sited for prophesying because of the Spirit.  Moses operated in several gifts in the course of leading and freeing the People.  Bezalel is “filled” with knowledge for doing the Ark.  David also has several gifts: leadership, knowledge (plans for the Temple), and prophesy.  Yes, spiritual gifts are real and should be part of the believer’s life as well as part of the church service.

I have heard many positive and negative things about the gifts over the last forty years.  But I will go back to the words of Jesus in Luke 11 where He is teaching on prayer.  In verses 11 to 13 He makes the point that if you are asking the Father for something He will not give you a snake if you are asking for an egg.  He ends the session with, “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11: 13b (NIV)

In both Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 Paul shares about spiritual gifts and workings and then follows with a teaching/reminder on love.  I think the point is clear; love God and your neighbor, and part of that will be by using the gifts the Holy Spirit gives you for good.

Passover to Pentecost – Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

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Passover to Pentecost – Holy Spirit in the Old Testament        Week 7 Day 3

And will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.  John 14:16 + 17 (NIV)

I am telling on myself.  My paradigm had been the disciples were “in the dark” about the coming of the Holy Spirit and what that would mean to them (possibly because I don’t remember anyone ever teaching on this).  THEN I studied the topic.  There is so much about the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament that I will finish my study after Pentecost, I will try to stick to the season and the things that relate to this Feast.

Isaiah writes in chapter eleven that the Spirit that will rest on the Branch, will bear fruit is one of wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord.  This is a mixture of what we now call the fruits and gifts of the Spirit.  The Spirit is talked about approximately seventy times in the Old Testament. We will look at the times He is referred to in connection with those first two years of the Exodus.

In Exodus 31 and 35 He has “filled” Bezalel and Oholiab, the men who were to do the work on the Ark and Tabernacle.  The verb indicates they were “running over” with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to do the work.  The next mention is in Numbers 9 when the Lord gave the Spirit from Moses to elders of the people.  Even though it is never talked about Moses was filled with the Spirit, because He went from him to the elders.

The next three references are commentaries about the Spirit and Israel in the desert.  Isaiah 63: 10 -14, Nehemiah 9: 20 -30, and Psalm 106: 33 tell how the people acted toward what the Spirit was doing with them in the desert and His reaction to them.  He was teaching and testing, and they did not like it.

In looking at the references in my concordance I noticed that the Spirit is mentioned by Moses in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, but not in the Books that “cover” the Law – Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  I will let you ponder the relationship between the Spirit and Law.

Just because he is a topic in the sermon on the day of Pentecost by Peter I will mention that King David had a “forceful” relationship with the Spirit.  The King James Version says in 1 Samuel 16 that the Spirit was with David his whole life.  So the Spirit was very busy and mentioned many times in the Old Testament.

Passover to Pentecost – Pray

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Passover to Pentecost – Pray        Week 7 Day 2

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11: 1 (NIV)

These five words in Luke 11 are nestled in between two powerful pieces of information and are at the beginning of thirteen verses about prayer.  This example of how to pray is also found in Matthew 6: 5 – 15 that gives us another layer of facts about prayer.  The fact that the disciples choose to spend their time of waiting in Jerusalem in prayer is the natural extension of what they saw Jesus doing as He ministered.  The first fact in verse one is Jesus had finished praying when He was asked to teach them.  The second one is that these ex-disciples of John saw the need for teaching on this subject.

Many of the references in Luke to Jesus praying mention a quiet place or Him being alone or with a small group; Matthew records Him telling people to pray in private.  So when we read that the disciples are “hidden” in the Upper Room praying that makes sense.

What were they praying about?  A possible topic of pray for the 120 saints in the Upper Room may have been forgiveness.  I might guess that the period of ten days may have been pretty intense.  Jesus was killed, and then He was alive just too ascended, and be gone one more time.  He promised them to send a Counselor to them to walk with them as they spread His message.  Okay, why forgiveness?  Matthew records in 6:15 as Jesus taught about pray that if you do not forgive the Father will not forgive you; then John in 20: 22 + 23 that as Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit He mentioned about the forgiving sins.  These verses do make forgiving people a priority.

I will jump to Paul as he is teaching the Corinthians about things of the Spirit, chapter 12 is on spiritual gifts and how the Body is joined and related.  He ends that chapter by saying here is the most “excellent way.”  (For those you dismiss 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 as not for this time.  Why would Paul/ the Holy Spirit bother to include it at all?)  Paul knew that you needed to use spiritual things in love in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

Forgiveness is something that we have to choose to do.  I am finding out that many times it is more important to the one doing the forgiving than the offending party.  In that highly charged atmosphere that they had just been in for two months forgiveness may have been on their minds; because to spread the message of the kingdom effectively you should not be harboring forgiveness.

Passover to Pentecost – John 5

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Passover to Pentecost – John 5         Week 7 Day 1

Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. John 5: 1 (NIV)

Given the location of this story it is probable that this feast is Pentecost.  There is an Exodus connection with this healing.  The man who was healed had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  This is the actual time the children of Israel wandered in the desert.  Please, between the construction of the Tabernacle and moving to the spot to send the spies out it was two years into the journey.  God actually spotted them two years when He pronounced the forty years of wandering.  (God is merciful.)

“Do you want to get well?” may seem like a strange question to an invalid. The man however did not answer, yes!  Instead he gave all of the reasons he could not get the water to work.  Jesus skips the “baptism” and just tells him to get up and walk.   If this was on the actual feast day it would have been Shabbat or no work.  This is why the Jews were really angry.

Verses 14 and 15 parallel the reaction of the grumbling Children as the months passed by and manna was the mainstay of their diet.  They were receiving a miracle every day, and they were not happy.  Jesus told the man to stop sinning or something worse may happen to him.  It seems like the man is trying to get even for being called down, or at least he trying to make brownie points with the Jews.

http://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/

Passover to Pentecost – The Second Coming

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Passover to Pentecost – The Second Coming         Week 6 Day 7

At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Luke 21:27 (NIV)

Acts 1:6, the disciples are asking when Israel will get the kingdom back.  They are talking earthly kingdom, but Jesus answers with two things that went way past their question.  His first answer is about the spiritual kingdom and His second coming.  The second answer goes outside of Israel and carries them to the whole world.  It seems that the disciples were not ready to preach to the Gentiles, maybe that is why He had to blind Paul and get his attention.

Jesus spoke about His second coming many times.  I will use Luke 21 because it is in the Passover time frame and because it covers the major topics.  The day here is Tuesday of Holy Week and the Jews should have been tending the lambs for the sacrifice/meal.  Jesus replies to the disciples’ amazement about the Temple.  As with most prophecies, there is a “soon” part and an “in the future” part.  Some of what He tells them will happen when Rome destroys Jerusalem in about forty years.  But infused into His teaching is information about His second coming.

If you join Jesus’ last words to His disciples with the warnings and signs in Luke 21 you can see what He thought was important.  Luke 21 starts with the widow and her two pennies, the giving heart is more important than money.  From verse 8 to 28 it is pretty easy to see that it will be a time of darkness.  The Old Testament prophets starting with Isaiah refer to “the day.” (See the post The Day)  Jesus paints a somber picture in these verses, but the parable from verse 29 to 36 again pulls us back to what is important for Jesus: that we know He is coming again and that the kingdom of God is near, that His words and promises will not pass away, and that we need to live a life that will allow us to stand before Him.

In the Old Testament, many of the prophets connect “the Day” with valleys.  I did a study on the valleys in the Book of Joel.  There are different types of them and they refer to our attitudes and the judgment that is coming, please go to that post.

One thing for sure that will happen at His coming – every knee will bow.  The references in the New Testament are Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2: 10.  These come from the thoughts and warnings in Isaiah 45: 23 and one that connects back to the Counting of the Omer time period in Exodus – Psalms 95: 6 -8.  Again, in this Psalm, the important thing is your life and how you live it before Him.  See Him for the great God He is, acknowledge His working in your life, and do not harden your heart.