Peter, after being empowered and gifted by the Spirit declared that Jesus in His death, resurrection and ascension was creating all things new in Himself and would return to establish His kingdom on the earth in the city of Jerusalem! The New Covenant that had been inaugurated by Jesus’ blood on the cross on Passover (Nisan 14) was now transforming 3,000 Jews who had repented and were being indwelt by the Spirit of God. They were the remnant that was publicly and divinely identified with tongues of fire above their heads and given the gift of tongues to communicate the wonderful works of God to an international gathering from fifteen different geographical locations with a variety of languages (Acts 2:3 5-11). In essence, the knowledge of God was exploding through the faithful remnant of Israel in the 120 followers of Jesus atop Mt. Zion, 3,000 people came to faith in Jesus Messiah! Sinai 3,000 were judged because of idolatry on the ground floor of the Jesus revolution atop Mt. Zion, the Spirit of God wrote the Commandments on human hearts. Sinai God gave His commandments on tablets of stone written with the finger of God on the ground floor of the Jesus Revolution atop Mt. Zion, God demonstrated His presence, power and purpose to 120 Jewish believers. Sinai 1300 years earlier and on the ground floor of the Jesus Revolution atop Mt. God had demonstrated His presence atop Mt.What took place fifty days after Jesus gave His life on the cross, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:1) made a parallel between the giving of the Law at Sinai and the ground floor of the Jesus Revolution on Mount Zion. It is when the earth shook with flashes of lightning, and God spoke in thunder! The Jewish tradition is called Zman Matan Torah, “the season of the giving of the Law” when the Lord separated His people from Egypt and called them into relationship with Him. Yet on the minds of the hundreds of thousands attending that Pentecost was the belief that the Torah had been given at that time on Mount Sinai 1300 years earlier. It’s a harvest festival celebrating the end of the barley harvest and the first fruits of the wheat harvest. The Hebrew name is Shavout, meaning “weeks”. It refers to counting the harvest fifty days after Passover. We now know that there was a specific day in mind for that promise to be revealed: the day of Pentecost, one of the three pilgrim festivals required by the Lord. Jesus instructed the disciples after the resurrection to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. It is the ground floor of the beginning of THE Jesus Revolution! It could be said then that the way forward is the way back. But in order to really understand who a Jesus follower is today, we need to understand who we were as Jesus followers, and Pentecost is the ground floor. Many today are praying for a Jesus Movement – an incredible work of the Gospel in our generation.
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