The First Pentecost vs The Second Pentecost

The word Pentecost in the Hebrew is Shavout, it occurred around 1200-1100 BC approximately 50 days after the Israelites escaped the slavery in Egypt. This is an event where God made the Covenant with the nation of Israel after He had spoken with with Moses on top of the Mountain. Moses climbing down the mountain which is called Mount Sinai, he found people worshipping a calf of gold. The bible affirms, “So it was, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. So Moses’ anger became hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain” (Exodus 32:19).

The people at the feet of Mount Sinai were not patient enough, they thought Moses was gone forever and he wasn’t going to return despite the fact there were signs that he was really called by God. Some people developed distrust and Aaron helped them invent their own god. They had already made up their minds that they were no longer going to worship the God Moses introduced to them. Moses made a clarion call that those who are on the Lord’s side must come to him, only Levi’s sons came to him. Then there had to be a judgment for their sin.

The bible says, “And he said to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.”’ So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day” (Exodus 32:27-28). At least the bible gave us the figure that about three thousand people fell (died). This was first Pentecost of the Jews when the Lord was establishing a Covenant with them.

Now after this the people began dying whenever they sinned as opposed to before Moses climbing up Mount Sinai. God’s holiness is so much that we can only stand before Him because of His grace otherwise no man would be justified. The Law of Moses didn’t come to justify men but came to make mankind know their sins. This is what the bible says, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). I didn’t say it, it’s in your bible, the law won’t make you justified before God; the law only makes man to know what sin is and not justification.

Paul makes us aware of this and lot of people today are trying very hard to keep the law not knowing that the law won’t justify them. Abraham was not justified by the law but by faith. Read this verse, “And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). God justified Abraham when he believed, so are we. Mount Sinai is not unto justification but condemnation. I want you my people to get it, that’s why there had to be approximately three thousand people losing their lives. Whereas all along before the law no one died specifically from Egypt to Mount Sinai.

I know that it sounds a bit unfair that Moses allowed for the three thousand to be unalived and left Aaron the man whom this proposal ran through. Aaron’s confession was that the people were evil, but Aaron encouraged them to find gold. Moses also saw it. Now God allowed these three thousand to be killed by sword according to the words of Moses. Well, I suppose when this happened Aaron was supposed to be killed as well, but maybe because he was a priest to God, God had to spare him. This is what the Lord said to Moses, “So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made” (Exodus 32:35). The Bible didn’t mention the plague which the Lord struck them with, but we know that plagues can be sicknesses sometimes, but it’s not mentioned here therefore we cannot conclude that it was sicknesses.

Then the second Pentecost which was the first Pentecost for the New Covenant occurred also 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection. Guess what happened, three thousand people were saved, they received the Holy Spirit, they received eternal life and not condemnation. John wrote, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). The law was sent forth to men by a servant but grace and truth came not by a servant but the Son Himself. Moses was a great servant of God, the great prophet Israel has ever had, grace in the sight of God is so delicate that He sent Jesus His Son Someone whom He knew would deliver it exactly as He would want it to be.

That’s why it’s never easy to preach grace because it requires the Spirit of God since it was not just delivered by a servant, but the Master’s Son Himself. Many preachers in this day and age go against grace preachers claiming that they are allowing licenciousness in the body of Christ. They don’t understand grace, and if there be any preacher who claims he is a grace preacher but is soft on sin, he is not a grace preacher. The work of Jesus Christ brought back the law to its prestigious level where it should revered.

The law is holy and the law cannot bend to suit you. This is what you my people should understand, but we cannot now try and keep it. We cannot reach its level of holiness, because we are fallen beings already within ourselves. When God saw that, He sent His only Son to die for us sinners on the cross. Now we are no longer required to keep the law but to walk in the Spirit. We are no longer a generation of the letter but of the Spirit. Paul wrote, “Who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6).

When Paul was saying this, he was reminding the Corinthians of the two Pentecosts. The one of the letter had three thousand people dying and the one of the Spirit had three thousand people receiving the Holy Spirit. The bible affirms, “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them” (Acts 2:41). The two Pentecosts mark themselves with the number of lives they claim according to their purposes. The other claims them by unaliving them and the other by saving them from eternal death.

On this topic I won’t be long, but a quick reminder to all readers, that grace is greater than the law. We need the Holy Spirit for guidance because there’s lot to uncover in the New Covenant that we haven’t uncovered. Paul said this that the law was a ministry of condemnation, now that we have the ministry of grace, it must exceeds much more in glory. I will give an example to what he alluding to, “You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3).

My people, you too should be written epistles in this world to give testimony of Jesus Christ not with your mouth but by your life without saying anything. Jesus also said that we are the light of the world. I’m reminded that prophet Ezekiel once spoke about the stone and flesh, well it never crossed my mind that he might have been alluding to the law and grace. This just crossed my mind as I’m writing this, let’s see what he said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

I do understand that the heart of stone means stubbornness, but the tablets which the law of Moses written on were stones and they gave birth to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were stubborn and could not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and their seed lives on to this day. Then Ezekiel continued and said, “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). This is where it’s really indicating that it attests to what Paul was saying.

As I close, remember that we are of the Covenant of grace which was birthed at the second Pentecost which occurred 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. Remember also that, three thousand people were saved as opposed to the first Pentecost where the same three thousand were killed with sword. Christ loves you, He came so that He could be a sacrificial lamb to redeem us from slave market of sin. The law came and didn’t save mankind but could only show us our sin and condemn us. All honour and glory to Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, forever and ever. Amen

Stay in health