Shavuot: God Gives You His Word Before His Spirit

Introduction

This past Pentecost Sunday, Momentum Church welcomed Johann Lange, a full-time missionary with Jews for Jesus. He didn't come to walk you through Acts 2 the way you've heard it a hundred times before. He wanted to go back further, all the way to the Hebrew root of this feast that the calendar simply calls "Pentecost" and that the Bible calls Shavuot.

Because behind the rushing wind, the tongues of fire, and the three thousand baptisms, there's an older appointment. An appointment where God comes down on a mountain, carves his Word into stone, and shapes his people into a community that is taught. Here's what Shavuot tells you: God gives you his Word before he fills you with his Spirit. The two are never separated.

Here's the heart of the message Johann shared, in the order he gave it.

Article Outline

1. The moadim: God's appointed times
2. Shavuot: the feast of the giving of the Torah
3. From Shavuot to the Christian Pentecost: Acts 2
4. Word and Spirit: one never comes without the other
5. Johann's testimony: when the Torah brings things to light

The moadim: God's appointed times

Johann's first point: the feasts we spontaneously call "Jewish feasts" aren't primarily Jewish feasts. The Bible calls them the feasts of the LORD. God himself says in Leviticus 23:2: "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The set feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts.'" These are "my feasts," God says.

The Hebrew word used for "feast" is moed. A moed is an appointment, a meeting, a set time, an appointed time. You find it in Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting, the ancestor of the tabernacle. Three times a year, the whole people went up to Jerusalem to meet the LORD: at Passover, at Shavuot, and at Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles). Three great pilgrimage feasts, framing seven feasts in total.

Hold on to that word: moed. If under the old covenant the people needed three yearly appointments with their God, how much more do you need them too. Not three times a year: all the time. Johann connects it to the great biblical theme of the closeness God wants to have with you. A moed, he says, is a moment where you're not scrolling your phone or answering emails at the same time. It's a time when God has one hundred percent of your attention, when you belong to him and he belongs to you.

This goes all the way back to the garden of Eden. God calls out to Adam, who is hiding: "Adam, where are you?" God knows exactly where Adam is; he's all-knowing. What he's waiting for is Adam's answer. The whole Bible could be summed up this way: God wants an appointment with you, and he's asking you to come out of hiding.

Shavuot: the feast of the giving of the Torah

The word Shavuot literally means "weeks." Seven weeks, to be precise: seven times seven, forty-nine days. On the fiftieth day, the feast is celebrated, which is where the Greek word Pentecost comes from, with "pente" meaning five. This year, the feast fell at sundown on Thursday, May 21.

Shavuot is first tied to the agricultural cycle. At Passover, the firstfruits of the barley harvest were offered. At Shavuot, seven weeks later, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered. In between, every day, the Israelites waved a sheaf before the LORD: this is the counting of the omer. An omer is a measure of about two and a fifth liters. Seven weeks of counting, day after day, before the new offering.

Here is the central passage Johann read, Leviticus 23:15-21: "You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven Sabbaths complete. Even to the next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall number fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to the LORD. You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering..." The text then details the sacrifices: seven lambs without blemish a year old, one young bull, two rams, one male goat for a sin offering, and two lambs for a peace offering.

Johann points out the sheer scale of this financial sacrifice. Do the math in pounds of meat: this was no small thing. A genuine offering, real generosity. If the people did this under the old covenant, ask yourself what you're giving today.

Deuteronomy 16:10-12 adds an important note: "You shall keep the feast of weeks... You shall rejoice before the LORD your God: you, and your son, and your daughter, and your male servant, and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the foreigner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you... You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt." At every moed, the same instruction returns: remember what God has done for you.

But Shavuot is, above all, in tradition, the feast of the giving of the Torah. No verse states this with that precision, but the Bible places Israel's arrival at the foot of Sinai in the third month, after leaving Egypt (Exodus 19). That's where Moses receives the Ten Commandments. Shavuot thus became the feast of the giving of God's Word.

From Shavuot to the Christian Pentecost: Acts 2

Acts 2 takes place on Shavuot. The disciples are together in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is on pilgrimage. "Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind... Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak."

Peter stands up, quotes the prophet Joel, and by the end of his message three thousand people are baptized.

Johann pauses on that number. Three thousand should remind you of something. At the foot of Sinai, while Moses was receiving the Torah, the people grew impatient and made themselves a golden calf. The judgment was severe: three thousand men fell by the sword that day (Exodus 32). Fifteen centuries later, on another Shavuot, three thousand souls are saved, baptized, and added to the church. A wink from the heart of God toward redemption: where the Law had to strike, the Spirit comes to raise up.

Johann highlights a second echo: languages. At Babel, human pride wanted to build a tower reaching to heaven "to make a name for ourselves." God answered with confusion (Babel means confusion), and languages multiplied. At Acts 2, the movement reverses. Jews and converts from every nation each hear the gospel in their own language. What politics, diplomacy, and the United Nations will never manage, the gospel and the gift of the Holy Spirit accomplish: reconciling peoples that language had torn apart.

Word and Spirit: one never comes without the other

Here is the heart of Johann's message. Shavuot, in Exodus 19, is the giving of the Torah, the giving of God's Word. Pentecost, in Acts 2, is the giving of the Holy Spirit. These are not two competing feasts. It's the same feast, brought to its fulfillment.

In the Bible, Word and Spirit go together. When God's Word rings out, the Holy Spirit is there. When the Holy Spirit shows up, God's Word is there. One never comes without the other. A spirituality that claims to seek the Spirit without the Word cuts itself off from its source; reading the Word without the Spirit stays dead letter.

Johann's closing prayer put it plainly: "We know that your Word and your Spirit never stray far from each other. They are always joined, always together."

Johann's testimony: when the Torah brings things to light

To understand why Johann insists so strongly on this unity, you need to hear where he comes from. A traditional Jewish father, an atheist Catholic mother, a childhood in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris, no Christian upbringing at all, and only a very surface-level knowledge of Judaism, since the prayers were said in Hebrew and no one at the table understood the meaning.

As a teenager, he became passionate about astronomy, then physics. He would go on to become a physicist and spend fifteen years in research. His way of searching for truth at the time was the scientific method. He calls himself a rationalist, a materialist, an atheist. Religion held no interest for him.

His studies took him to Denmark. There, alone and isolated, old wounds resurfaced. He decided to teach himself psychology online to try to heal himself. He read about hypnosis, about self-hypnosis; he tried it, and it worked. He read about lucid dreaming, about astral travel; he tried it, and it worked. Then one thing led to another: new age, yoga, Buddhism, occultism. For this rationalist, it was a massive discovery: the spiritual world is real, it exists, and scientific honesty demanded he admit it.

The Lord wouldn't let him sink much further. About two years later, alone in his student room, he came across a portrait of Jesus online. The portrait seemed to come alive, the eyes as if they were about to look at him. A strong presence filled the room. A voice, like a clear, forceful thought, resounded: "Do you want me in your life?" Then, a second time: "If you say yes, your whole life is going to be different."

Johann asked for twenty-four hours to think it over. His scientist's reasoning was simple: Jesus has the largest religion on earth, so he receives the most worship, so he must be the most powerful spirit. Not exactly airtight logic, he says with a smile, but the conclusion was right. The next day, not even knowing how to pray, he typed under his computer screen: "Yes, gladly."

A few days later, he opened the Bible to understand who exactly he had just said yes to. It was a revelation. He believed what he read, he understood what he read, and he found within himself a passion for Jesus. Back home one weekend at his parents' house, he found a small Gideon Bible he had been given at thirteen when leaving middle school, and had hidden so his father wouldn't find it.

He set out to be baptized, wrote to a Brazilian pastor in his city, showed up at the service, discovered three hundred people of every nationality praising God, and made about twenty friends he has kept to this day. He would come to understand a little later that he was truly a sinner and needed a Savior. But he was already on fire: Bible study on Monday, prayer on Tuesday, evangelism on Wednesday, and even (he tells it laughing) once at the women's group, who welcomed him warmly anyway.

This journey sheds light on why he insists so much. A spirituality without the Word had led him into the occult. When the Word came, the Spirit was already there. Together, the two saved him.

Key Takeaways

• The feasts of the LORD are first and foremost his feasts, moadim, appointed times that God himself sets.
• Shavuot means "weeks": seven weeks of counting the omer between Passover and Pentecost.
• Shavuot is, in tradition, the feast of the giving of the Torah at Sinai (Exodus 19). Acts 2 is the giving of the Holy Spirit on the very same day.
• The three thousand saved in Acts 2 answer the three thousand who fell at the golden calf: God's heart is set on redemption.
• Pentecost undoes Babel: the languages that once separated people become the very means by which the gospel reconciles them.
• The Word and the Spirit always go together. Never seek one without the other.

Questions for Personal Application

1. Do you have a real moed with God in your week, an appointment where he has one hundred percent of your attention, no phone, no distractions?
2. Deuteronomy 16 tells you: remember. Can you name three recent deliverances God has worked in your life?
3. Is your spiritual life fed by the Word and by the Spirit, or do you lean on one at the expense of the other?
4. Like the Israelites at the foot of Sinai, what "idol" does your heart build when God seems to be taking his time: money, a degree, your children, yourself?
5. What can you offer this week, concretely, the way the Israelites brought their offerings at Shavuot?

Scriptures Cited in This Message

• Exodus 19 · Israel's arrival at the foot of Sinai
• Exodus 20 · the Ten Commandments
• Exodus 32 · the golden calf and the three thousand who fell
• Leviticus 23 · the seven feasts of the LORD, including Shavuot (v. 15-21)
• Deuteronomy 6:4 · the Shema: "Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one."
• Deuteronomy 16:10-17 · the Feast of Weeks and the call to generosity
• Genesis 11 · the Tower of Babel
• Joel 2 · the prophecy Peter quotes
• Acts 2 · Pentecost, the tongues of fire, and the three thousand baptized

FAQ

Are Shavuot and Pentecost the same feast?

Yes. Shavuot is the Hebrew name for the Feast of Weeks, one of the three great pilgrimage feasts of the Old Covenant. It falls fifty days after Passover, which is where its Greek name Pentecost comes from (pente means five). It's the same day on the biblical calendar: the Pentecost of Acts 2 falls exactly on the appointed time God set in Leviticus 23.

Why count fifty days between Passover and Pentecost?

The people of Israel counted seven full weeks starting from the Sabbath following Passover, waving a sheaf of barley called the omer each day. Seven times seven makes forty-nine days. On the fiftieth day, a new offering of wheat was presented to the LORD. This countdown carried the people from one feast to the other, from the Passover sacrifice to the commemoration of the giving of the Torah at Sinai.

What does the Hebrew word moed mean?

Moed means appointment, assembly, appointed time. You find it in the phrase Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting, which precedes the tabernacle. The feasts of the LORD are therefore the appointed times God himself sets to meet with his people. This word reminds you that God seeks closeness with you, not just three times a year, but all the time.